$1.1M Grant Targets AI Skills Gap in State Government

by  GovTech Staff

The money will enable the firms Holly and 17A to work with Oklahoma and Virginia in assessing how AI could change government jobs. The endeavor will develop an open-source tool other states can use.

Summary

A $1.1 million grant will fund a project to help Oklahoma and Virginia assess how AI could change government jobs and workforce skills.

The project, led by Holly and 17A, will develop an open-source tool, VOKA, to compare state job classifications with emerging workforce skills. The goal is to guide hiring and investment decisions as AI becomes more prevalent in government.

 Read full story at Government Technology

The Government Learned the Hard Lessons of Cloud. It Should Apply Them to AI Now

by  Chris Arroyo

Agencies should apply cloud-era disciplines to models, prompts and agents now, and shift from “human in the loop” to “human in the lead. ”

Summary

Government agencies adopting AI can apply lessons from cloud modernization, which showed that new technology models without visibility and governance simply replace one form of technical debt with another.

Datadog telemetry shows AI complexity is arriving fast: more than 70% of organizations use three or more models, and 5% of LLM calls return errors, 60% of them from rate limits. Familiar disciplines such as backoff mechanisms, usage budgets, and capacity planning become more important, as do cost controls amid rising token use.

The author urges moving from “human in the loop” to “human in the lead,” with risk-based oversight enforced by automated controls, citing CBP, the State Department, and CMS. Observability, the author concludes, is the foundation of AI governance.

 Read full story at Federal News Network

Why Government Transformation Starts With a Strong Technology Foundation

by  Mickey McCarter

Government transformation requires a long-term strategy built on modern infrastructure, trusted data and a commitment to continuous improvement.

Summary

Government technology leaders face converging pressures from aging infrastructure, tight budgets, rising citizen expectations, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity needs, elevating transformation from a technology initiative to a strategic imperative. The article argues that true transformation is larger than individual projects such as cloud migration. It is an ongoing process of rethinking how government delivers services, manages information, and supports employees.

Modern infrastructure remains the foundation, enabling data-driven decision-making, efficiency, security, and better constituent experiences.

Agencies should build a strong foundation, develop a clear strategy, and invest in long-term goals rather than short-term fixes. Success means treating transformation as a sustained commitment, not a destination.

 Read full story at StateTech

Apple Home Collection Introduces New Cameras, Doorbell, Lock, and Thermostats

by  Adam Engst

Alongside last week's HomeView, HomePod mini 2, and fourth-generation Apple TV 4K announcements, Apple also announced the Apple Home Collection,

Summary

Apple announced the Apple Home Collection, a lineup of smart home accessories “designed in collaboration” with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric. It includes four LG cameras ($199.95–$399.95), an LG Smart Deadbolt Lock ($349.95), and two $199.95 thermostats from LG and Schneider. All are controlled through the Home app and Siri, with end-to-end encryption and one-tap iPhone setup. The lock supports Matter and Aliro for local operation.

Cameras store footage in iCloud+ with 10 days of event history, but Apple Intelligence features require pricier plans, from 2 TB ($9.99 per month) up to 12 TB ($59.99). Availability begins in December 2026, with some accessories arriving in early 2027. It remains unclear what these devices offer beyond existing HomeKit accessories.

 Read full story at TidBITS

Highway Thieves Are Spoofing GPS to Steal Millions in Data Center-Bound Cargo

by  Ashley Belanger

Investigators explain how highway thieves stole $100M in data center equipment.

Summary

Highway thieves are using sophisticated digital tactics to steal millions in data center equipment.

They hack freight brokers' accounts, post fake shipments, and use malicious links to control trucking companies' accounts. Stolen goods, including servers, fiber-optic cables, and bitcoin mining machines, are resold on gray markets, often to overseas buyers.

 Read full story at arsTechnica

Three Signals from OGC Testbed-21 That Point to the Future of Geospatial Intelligence

by  OGC Blog

Explore key insights from OGC Testbed-21, including AI-ready geospatial interoperability, GIMI imagery innovation, trust frameworks, and data provenance

Summary

The OGC Testbed-21 Demonstration, held May 6–7, 2026, and sponsored by NASA and NGA, showcased how open standards and open-source technologies can advance geospatial interoperability for AI and automation.

Three themes emerged: interoperability now spans formats, semantics, and trust; imagery and video are becoming first-class information assets; and trust, quality, and conformance are prerequisites for AI.

A major focus was GIMI, a modern approach to managing imagery and video with rich metadata and standards-based discovery. Days after the demonstration, ISO published HEIF Edition 3 Amendment 2, incorporating the “tili” feature for efficient access to large tiled imagery.

Other work covered open-source tooling, provenance and integrity services, data-quality metadata, and automated conformance testing, reinforcing that trustworthy AI depends on trustworthy data.

 Read full story at Open Geospatial Consortium

AI in the Power Sector

by  Davide Savenije

The growing use of AI in the power sector

Summary

AI is positioned to affect the power industry from two directions: as the technology driving large load demand growth and as a tool that could make the power system more efficient. Utilities already use deep learning algorithms for load and weather forecasting, demand response, and distributed resource aggregation, among other applications.

The Trendline highlights three recent developments. New York audited utility AI use and cited risk in “growing dependency” on the technology. Exelon's climate arm backed grid-planning firm Continuum. Santee Cooper partnered with Google in a shift toward AI-driven forecasting.

 Read full story at UtilityDive

Landis+Gyr Secures Major Contract with Leading US Utility

by  Landis+Gyr Press Release

The Contract is worth over $37 Million

Summary

Landis+Gyr Group AG (SIX: LAND) announced a major contract with a leading US investor-owned electric utility covering more than 3 million advanced metering endpoints. The company will supply Revelo meters along with associated network and head-end system technologies, advanced security solutions, premium support, and software maintenance and services.

The deployment is expected to advance the utility's grid modernization objectives by enhancing security, grid visibility, and operational performance. “This important win reflects the strong momentum of our Grid Edge Intelligence portfolio and the trust customers place in Landis+Gyr to support large-scale grid modernization programs,” said CEO Peter Mainz. The utility was not named.

 Read full story at Landis+Gyr

Lidar for Distribution Vegetation Management: How Utilities Prioritize Tree Risk

by  Sarah Roe

Lidar for distribution vegetation management helps utilities rank grow-in, fall-in and overhang risk and send crews where they matter first.

Summary

Trees are a leading cause of distribution outages and a major wildfire liability, and NV5 Geospatial says aerial lidar is shifting utility vegetation management from patrol-everything inspections to targeted, risk-based programs. Airborne lidar captures a three-dimensional point cloud of conductors, poles, and surrounding trees, letting analytics flag grow-in, fall-in, and overhang risks while measuring tree height, crown shape, and lean.

Combined with conductor modeling, wildfire risk zones, and satellite-derived vegetation health data, the analysis helps utilities decide where to act first. Lidar doesn't replace arborists; it directs them to flagged locations, expanding inspection capacity without adding crews. NV5 recommends collecting data on a repeatable schedule and starting with an operational question, such as clearance, rather than the sensor.

 Read full story at lidar News