A new challenge to automate one of the most tedious jobs in government

Tom Temin: Overlook Tung, excellent to have you on.

Doris Tung: Yes, thank you for obtaining me.

Tom Temin: And you are wanting for a technique to identify, I guess, the CUI, the managed but unclassified knowledge. Let us commence with that variety of information. Is that the hardest to establish or the most delicate, or why commence there?

Doris Tung: Properly, the managed unclassified facts, which I’m heading to refer to as CUI, it’s hard to mark due to the fact it has over 120 types, and there are subsets of people. So for an stop consumer to detect whether your document involves a unique marking or not, can be rather laborous. While with labeled documents, you’re rather sure regardless of whether or not you’re operating on a application that is heading to be, you know, magic formula, best mystery, and the files that are generated from that need to have their acceptable marking. So CUI has been all around as a necessity for awhile. But since of its huge majority of classes, and special marking specifications, and also legacy markings with “for official use only”, and points like that, it can get complex for a person to determine no matter if a document is CUI, and then “how do I mark it?”.

Tom Temin: And I visualize, there is a wonderful probability for inconsistency from man or woman to particular person or device to unit or bureau to bureau, far too?

Doris Tung: Oh, unquestionably. Consider about all the documents that we deliver in the federal governing administration. We’re developing so numerous documents, specifically electronically now, far too. So you know, absolutely everyone is producing their individual conclusions on whether it wants to be marked, and then doing it correctly. Simply because there is really particular demands on what do. You want to set on the header or the footer of the doc. And then if you are accomplishing e-mail, you know, how do you distribute CUI? So there is unique demands that an stop-user from individual to particular person may not be conscious, and they are just making use of what they think is right.

Tom Temin: And prior to we get into the particulars of the problem you have introduced, why is it coming through the Philadelphia division of the Naval Area Warfare Center of all the feasible destinations in the Navy?

Doris Tung: I’m a section of a department of Navy management software named “Bridging the Gap,” a advancement program for concentrating on escalating senior govt service. And so as section of this system, senior govt provider from the Navy participates by providing authentic lifestyle complications for the group to remedy so we can do some motion mastering. And Mr. Alonzie Scott, who is a SCS at the Office of Naval Investigation, he offered his challenge to this software and our group,. You know, I’m coming out of Philadelphia, he offered a problem of, you know, how do we simplify marking of managed unclassified facts using and leveraging automation and synthetic intelligence and equipment finding out? I perform in the contracts division, and I’m a contracting officer, and as component of the Naval Surface Warfare Middle, we do have the authority to challenge prize troubles. And that was a alternative that our workforce arrived upon. You know, the staff members consist of persons throughout the Navy.

Tom Temin: Secure to say the output of this project could have Navy-large implications, though, or even DoD extensive.

Doris Tung: Appropriate, suitable. Undoubtedly. I suggest, I imagine it could go outside of DoD, simply because we did have conversations as element of our current market investigation with modest company administration, defense complex data middle. And you know, people today are all having difficulties to figure out how do you successfully put into action this in which the customers realize how to mark it, and probably taking off some of that load off of the close-user. So it could have feasible implications for Navy and potentially past.

Tom Temin: We’re speaking with Doris Tang. She’s acquisition division manager in the Philadelphia division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center. Notify us about the challenge, then, this is a not a grant software, but a prize challenge-style of application. And who are you achieving out to? And what are you hoping to come up with?

Doris Tung: So the prize obstacle we resolved to go with this system compared to any traditional Considerably, you know, Federal Acquisition Regulation-primarily based contracting, mainly because the prize problem lets us go out to the general public. So it can be corporations, nonprofits, people, any person can participate. There’s sure limitations, but usually, you know, everyone who has a solution can post their strategy. So the prize challenge is to inquire if any one has a option wherever they can leverage the artificial intelligence machine mastering to automate the marking of the document, and we’ve damaged up the challenge into two phases. In section a single, which really just closed, is a white paper to display, you know, what is their prototype, and then they will have a down decide on, where by we move on to phase two. And those people persons then can then actually build a prototype, and then we’ll take a look at it with real documentation to see if they can mark it precisely. And the winner that will be picked, you know, would have the optimum accuracy rate, so we’re enthusiastic to see what solutions does field and the community have to fixing this trouble?

Tom Temin: And do you have some goal sets of files that absolutely everyone has agreed these are surely CUI, because before, we talked about the variability that can appear in there. And you outlined 120 attainable classes. And we’ve read this for quite a few several years about how quite a few levels there are. So what’s your reference kind of knowledge?

Doris Tung: So for the prize challenge, we are concentrating on delivering just a subset of the CUI group. So focusing on the privateness and the procurement and legislation enforcement. So we have documentation that we know for confident is marked correctly. And there is a sample established, you know, with synthetic intelligence and device understanding, the much more documents that you can see the tool, the a lot more the equipment can discover. So they want the details. So we understand that part of this is that we need to have to give them a fantastic details established for the instrument to actually discover. So we’ve form of been scrubbing as component of our workforce, developing these paperwork, ensuring that it is protected to share with the public as well, for this challenge. But we are concentrating on just particular subsets and then with any luck ,, you know, based on what is the end result of this prize obstacle, then, you know, growing over and above just all those sure subsets.

Tom Temin: And do you also have patently un-CUI that you toss in there to variety of pressure test the algorithm, for example, like throwing in a comedian guide or a novel?

Doris Tung: I suggest, we unquestionably considered that. We do have non-CUI documents so that the resource can find out what is CUI and what is not CUI. But which is a fantastic idea about throwing in a comic guide. Which is a little something we’ll have to consider.

Tom Temin: And I was just pondering if the algorithm can also place classified by accident that could get in there. That would be a attribute, I consider you would want to have like a red gentle arrives on and suggests, “Hey, hold out a moment, this is not only not unclassified, but it ought to be classified.”

Doris Tung: Oh, that would be an superb enhancement for the instrument. Right now we’re only focusing on just can it even figure out is it CUI, non-CUI? And then, you know, if persons have an skill to even address that part, we would love to see if they integrated that categorized piece, mainly because categorized is also a piece. It could be CUI and labeled. So there are truly a good deal of variability to files that you know, as soon as ideally, we can even just clear up this fundamental difficulty, then we can then go on to see what variety of opportunity these resources could have. That would be anything I consider persons would want.

Tom Temin: And what do you suspect are some of the procedures that this could be done by? For case in point, is it a straightforward term research and review sort of point? Or is it additional refined than that. Is there context? Is there syntax? Simply because you are working with largely published files reasonable to say?

Doris Tung: That is fair to say that it is all prepared paperwork. So we did explore what software was present out there. And there are applications out there now with developing CUI marking instrument with search phrase lookups. But we uncovered that to be problematic, due to the fact you are likely to rely on an particular person attempting to detect all the keywords that could potentially flag a sure classification. And so we’re conversing about 120 categories, and then there is a subset. So do we have persons who are capable to genuinely hone in on what keywords and phrases would flag each and every of all those types? So which is why we shift towards the machine finding out to artificial intelligence device discovering when the device then reads all these details sets, then it can determine out, you know, which of these terms are, you know, I necessarily mean, which is the part the place we’re hoping that the individuals not the prize obstacle is likely to convey to us like how can your machine do this?

Tom Temin: And now you are acquiring the white papers in, what is the next period? And does this grow to be a little something that as a technological know-how transfer prospect or anything, you would flip into a products that the Navy could get?

Doris Tung: So the future stage right after we evaluation the white papers is the tech demo. And perhaps, what we’re looking into is, you know, there’s new procurement cars and solutions, these as the other transaction agreements out there. So we are on the lookout into, you know, based mostly on the good results of section two, where they do the demonstrations, we will then go after whether it’s actually heading to be one thing like a products that we can truly procure, or whether or not there just desires to be added comply with-up procurement methods to see. Simply because there are other Navy, Maritime Corps working system demands that we also have to contemplate that suitable now the problem isn’t actually restricting the individuals in that fashion still.

Tom Temin: Sure. So when you get this solved, probably you can consider on deal crafting.

Doris Tung: Of course, I assume it would seriously be a scenario that could truly be delved into.

Tom Temin: You know, I assure you’d rocket to the SES if it got that 1 solved. Doris Tung is the acquisition division manager in the Philadelphia division of the Naval Area Warfare Middle. Thanks so a lot.