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[Alexandra Kelley](/voices/alexandra-kelley/18507/?oref=ng-post-author?oref=rf-post-author)-| December 31, 2024 09:00 AM ETMeet Mike Horton, the acting chief AI officer at the Department of Transportation.———————————————————————————-* [Rise of the Chief AI Officer](/topic/rise-chief-ai-officer/?oref=ng-article-topics)* [](https://twitter.com/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nextgov.com%2Fartificial-intelligence%2F2024%2F12%2Ftransportations-ai-lead-sees-collaboration-everybody-his-agency%2F401834%2F&text=Transportation%E2%80%99s+AI+lead+sees+%E2%80%98collaboration+with+everybody%E2%80%99+at+his+agency&via=Nextgov)* 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more novel artificial intelligence solutions to the Department of Transportation isn’t happening in a vacuum. To bring AI use cases to life across the agency’s mission suite, leaders are working collaboratively at both an IT and research level to understand both how AI can operationalize Transportation action items and what internal changes have to happen to create an AI-friendly ecosystem.At the helm of this endeavor is Acting Chief AI Officer Mike Horton. Speaking to *Nextgov/FCW*, Horton identified his key priorities to develop a robust AI infrastructure at Transportation — such as workforce cultivation and securing steady funding — and what he needs from vendors in introducing novel AI solutions to his agency.**Nextgov/FCW: Who do you report to in your organization?****Mike Horton:**I actually report as the -[acting-] CAIO to the chief information officer. But early on, we made an MOU with the research side, and I am not only part of CIO leadership, but I’m also -[an-] invited member of research leadership also. So…those two are my big bosses, and I’m also the vice chair of the AI Governance Committee, and that is run by the Deputy Secretary of Transportation. So I really have three bosses to adhere to, but it’s also very supportive because I have collaboration with everybody that I need to.**Nextgov/FCW: How many people are on your team?****Horton:**Right now it’s me by myself. It’s not a real big deal, because I get tons of collaborative assistance from everybody else. Hopefully we have in the budget —- that may or may not be approved —- that I get three more people to help me do this stuff right in my office. -[The department structure-] is effective because the CIO’s office has so much to do with what’s going on, you know. And then research is our biggest customer.**Nextgov/FCW: What is your role in things like AI acquisition and workforce development?****Horton:**In the year to come…my focus is on the workforce and making sure that we acquire the right people, and that we’re educating, training and inspiring them in the right way. You know, on the process, that’s a big deal … and also on the product, which is the infrastructure. We can’t keep doing stuff the way that we’ve been doing it. When you’re typically buying IT stuff, you go through the IT spend plan, the authority to operate, and it’ll take six months, nine months, for you to get the thing that you wanted to use.We can’t do that for every use case that’s out there for AI. So we got to figure out a way to make that happen and then making sure the processes are in place to have the compliance without -[it-] being too onerous and slowing down the acceleration. But also getting the right infrastructure -[is important-] in dealing with the relationships with our vendors on what it is that we need, what’s out there, what’s new and how do we get them FISMA approved so that we can get them within the department.**Nextgov/FCW: How do you see the role of chief AI officer evolving over time?****Horton:**Right now, it’s all about the infrastructure, those processes that I talk about and educating the people. In the future, though, I’m still focused on collaboration…I’m going to be more interested in how well we’re collaborating with the private sector, with our other federal agencies, on the development that we’re doing. I don’t want us replicating stuff that’s going on. I want us to take what other people have done and go ahead and do that.And the future also, I think, is -[based-] on the relationships that I have with the vendors that are out there, big and small. So what is it you guys and gals are coming up with? What do we need from my researchers and my experts that are in-house? How do I marry those two things up? How do I get the leading edge technology through the gate so it can be used in government and that we can go ahead and approve it for use at the department?**Nextgov/FCW: What is your biggest priority right now?****Horton:**I have two competing top priorities. The first one is elevating the federal workforce productivity; I gotta show that AI is going to make things better for people that are working and keep from shuffling papers and get them -[doing-] the brain work and the expertise that we hired them to do. That’s number 1(A).Number 1(B) is increasing that quality of service to the public. So how do we use AI to show the public that: look, we’re doing things better, things are easier, they’re faster. Share This:* [](https://twitter.com/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nextgov.com%2Fartificial-intelligence%2F2024%2F12%2Ftransportations-ai-lead-sees-collaboration-everybody-his-agency%2F401834%2F&text=Transportation%E2%80%99s+AI+lead+sees+%E2%80%98collaboration+with+everybody%E2%80%99+at+his+agency&via=Nextgov)* [](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nextgov.com%2Fartificial-intelligence%2F2024%2F12%2Ftransportations-ai-lead-sees-collaboration-everybody-his-agency%2F401834%2F&mini=true&summary=Meet+Mike+Horton%2C+the+acting+chief+AI+officer+at+the+Department+of+Transportation.&source=Nextgov.com&title=Transportation%E2%80%99s+AI+lead+sees+%E2%80%98collaboration+with+everybody%E2%80%99+at+his+agency)* [](https://www.facebook.com/dialog/feed?picture=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.nextgov.com%2Fmedia%2Fimg%2Fcd%2F2024%2F12%2F20%2F122024TransportationNG%2F860x394.jpg&name=Transportation%E2%80%99s+AI+lead+sees+%E2%80%98collaboration+with+everybody%E2%80%99+at+his+agency&app_id=622609557824468&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nextgov.com&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nextgov.com%2Fartificial-intelligence%2F2024%2F12%2Ftransportations-ai-lead-sees-collaboration-everybody-his-agency%2F401834%2F&display=popup&description=Meet+Mike+Horton%2C+the+acting+chief+AI+officer+at+the+Department+of+Transportation.)* [](mailto:?body=Meet%20Mike%20Horton%2C%20the%20acting%20chief%20AI%20officer%20at%20the%20Department%20of%20Transportation.%0A%0Ahttps%3A//www.nextgov.com/artificial-intelligence/2024/12/transportations-ai-lead-sees-collaboration-everybody-his-agency/401834/&subject=Nextgov.com%3A%20Transportation%E2%80%99s%20AI%20lead%20sees%20%E2%80%98collaboration%20with%20everybody%E2%80%99%20at%20his%20agency)**NEXT STORY:** [Agencies report over 1,700 AI use cases](/artificial-intelligence/2024/12/agencies-report-over-1700-ai-use-cases/401803/?oref=ng-next-story) | [Human operators must be held accountable for AI’s use in conflicts, Air Force secretary says](/artificial-intelligence/2023/12/human-operators-must-be-held-accountable-ais-use-conflicts-air-force-secretary-says/392457/?oref=ng-earthbox-post) | [Why NIST is prioritizing creating a dictionary of AI development](/artificial-intelligence/2023/12/why-nist-prioritizing-creating-dictionary-ai-development/392427/?oref=ng-earthbox-post) | [SSA restructures tech shop to center on the CIO](/modernization/2023/11/ssa-restructures-tech-shop-center-cio/392377/?oref=ng-earthbox-post) | [How a push to the cloud helped a Ukrainian bank keep faith with customers amid war](/modernization/2023/11/how-push-cloud-helped-ukrainian-bank-keep-faith-customers-amid-war/392375/?oref=ng-earthbox-post) | [The people problem behind the government’s AI ambitions](/artificial-intelligence/2023/11/people-problem-behind-governments-ai-ambitions/392212/?oref=ng-earthbox-post) | [sponsor content| Streamlining public health: How the FDA is leveraging cloud solutions](https://www.govexec.com/assets/streamlining-public-health-how-fda-leveraging-clou/portal/) | [Human operators must be held accountable for AI’s use in conflicts, Air Force secretary says](/artificial-intelligence/2023/12/human-operators-must-be-held-accountable-ais-use-conflicts-air-force-secretary-says/392457/?oref=ng-earthbox-post) | [Why NIST is prioritizing creating a dictionary of AI development](/artificial-intelligence/2023/12/why-nist-prioritizing-creating-dictionary-ai-development/392427/?oref=ng-earthbox-post) | [SSA restructures tech shop to center on the CIO](/modernization/2023/11/ssa-restructures-tech-shop-center-cio/392377/?oref=ng-earthbox-post) | [How a push to the cloud helped a Ukrainian bank keep faith with customers amid war](/modernization/2023/11/how-push-cloud-helped-ukrainian-bank-keep-faith-customers-amid-war/392375/?oref=ng-earthbox-post) | [The people problem behind the government’s AI ambitions](/artificial-intelligence/2023/11/people-problem-behind-governments-ai-ambitions/392212/?oref=ng-earthbox-post) | [sponsor content| | Streamlining public health: How the FDA is leveraging cloud solutions](https://www.govexec.com/assets/streamlining-public-health-how-fda-leveraging-clou/portal/)
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