Trump Admin to Hire 1,000 for New 'Tech Force' to Build AI Infrastructure (cnbc.com) 56
An anonymous reader shared this report from CNBC:
The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a new initiative dubbed the "U.S. Tech Force," comprising about 1,000 engineers and other specialists who will work on artificial intelligence infrastructure and other technology projects throughout the federal government.
Participants will commit to a two-year employment program working with teams that report directly to agency leaders in "collaboration with leading technology companies," according to an official government website. ["...and work closely with senior managers from companies partnering with the Tech Force."] Those "private sector partners" include Amazon Web Services, Apple, Google Public Sector, Dell Technologies, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle, Palantir, Salesforce and numerous others [including AMD, IBM, Coinbase, Robinhood, Uber, xAI, and Zoom], the website says.
The Tech Force shows the Trump administration increasing its focus on developing America's AI infrastructure as it competes with China for dominance in the rapidly growing industry... The engineering corps will be working on "high-impact technology initiatives including AI implementation, application development, data modernization, and digital service delivery across federal agencies," the site says.
"Answer the call," says the new web site at TechForce.gov.
"Upon completing the program, engineers can seek employment with the partnering private-sector companies for potential full-time roles — demonstrating the value of combining civil service with technical expertise." [And those private sector companies can also nominate employees to participate.] "Annual salaries are expected to be in the approximate range of $150,000 to $200,000."
Participants will commit to a two-year employment program working with teams that report directly to agency leaders in "collaboration with leading technology companies," according to an official government website. ["...and work closely with senior managers from companies partnering with the Tech Force."] Those "private sector partners" include Amazon Web Services, Apple, Google Public Sector, Dell Technologies, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle, Palantir, Salesforce and numerous others [including AMD, IBM, Coinbase, Robinhood, Uber, xAI, and Zoom], the website says.
The Tech Force shows the Trump administration increasing its focus on developing America's AI infrastructure as it competes with China for dominance in the rapidly growing industry... The engineering corps will be working on "high-impact technology initiatives including AI implementation, application development, data modernization, and digital service delivery across federal agencies," the site says.
"Answer the call," says the new web site at TechForce.gov.
"Upon completing the program, engineers can seek employment with the partnering private-sector companies for potential full-time roles — demonstrating the value of combining civil service with technical expertise." [And those private sector companies can also nominate employees to participate.] "Annual salaries are expected to be in the approximate range of $150,000 to $200,000."
Very cool... (Score:5, Insightful)
When that predictably turns out well; we can presumably grab some folksy Reagan line about how the government can't do anything right; and just directly farm out the contract to palantir or whoever.
Re: Very cool... (Score:2)
Seems like a perfect 'Big Brother' tool to find everyone that don't conform to the rules of the ruling party.
Stasi would have loved this tool.
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Yeah, whatever happened to the Republican mantra that the government should get out of the way of business and let the private sector do it.
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Those Republicans were conservatives, MAGA is a revolutionary authoritarian movement, there's nothing conservative about it.
Re:Very cool... [Super autopen!] (Score:2)
Mod parent funny. But so far the joke seems to have sailed right over the heads of the moderators.
My new "tech joke" attempt involves a different kind of computerization. It's a conspiracy joke about the bruised hand. The YOB can't sign his own name now, but he can't admit that he's using Joe's autopen, so they made a robot arm that clamps over his arm and fingers and guides them in signing documents. It clamps on a bit too firmly, but they had to focus on loyalty and secrecy over competence (as usual) as t
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"If you want voters to believe that government is broken you'll need to break it first." - Grover Norquist
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The Tech Force shows the Trump administration increasing its focus on developing America's AI infrastructure
No, it just shows their focus on press-release-worthy announcements that go nowhere after the press noise has died down.
Good ol' government IT (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's break down how these thousand "technologists" will be tasked during their two year stint:
All of them will spend the first one or two months waiting for their super duper secure smart cards with FIPS compliant crypto. Add another month for waiting for keys/certs to be reset a couple/three times.
In the remaining time:
About 30 or 40 of them will take a month or two to do something cool and practical in a sandbox environment where it isn't actually useful in practice.
And then they will wait the remaining 18 months for the other 950 or so of them to check all the compliance boxes, consult all the lawyers, make sure all the private sector contractors aren't being unfairly competed against by government employees, that properly written requirements were duly announced on Fedbid, etc.
Oh and also allow a couple months net downtime for mandatory windows and office updates breaking everything.
Good ol' government IT.
About 30 of them
Re:Good ol' government IT (Score:5, Insightful)
"On-boarding new people takes time". How is this different than IT in any large multinational?
If only a certain department actually was interested in making procedures more efficient instead of blithely firing thousands of people because Joey-K-Holes is bored and cooked his brain on his own social media.
I really hope this stupid game we've played of "keep voting to make the government worse simply so we can complain about it later for craven political advantage" is coming to an end finally.
Maybe the fact the efficiency department with unprecedented access, unprecedented authority and then does pretty much jack shit but indirectly kill thousands of people and then the debt just gets jacked up another $5T finally shows these people are liars, thieves and sociopaths.
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One way it's different is that it's a 2 year commitment. IIUC, there's no plan proposed to extend the employment.
Also, considering the companies I heard named in conjunction with the play, I hope it's a total failure.
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Oh it will be, for this type of initiative to work the people running it have to actually believe it can work. Good idea in theory but from this admin it's performative lip service that will have no real effort placed into it. This is just finding an excuse to keep whatever DOGE people left on the payroll (and so they can hire their friends)
Fresh-outs expected to do a lot in two years (Score:5, Insightful)
""Upon completing the program, engineers can seek employment with the partnering private-sector companies for potential full-time roles — demonstrating the value of combining civil service with technical expertise."
They're not hiring professionals with experience... looks like they plan on hiring fresh outs. And not even looking for the top. From the FAQ: [slashdot.org]
Don't expect much to come out of this in two years.
Re:Fresh-outs expected to do a lot in two years (Score:4, Insightful)
This should be a red flag:
Upon completing the program, engineers can seek employment with the partnering private-sector companies for potential full-time roles — demonstrating the value of combining civil service with technical expertise.
They're not hiring professionals with experience... looks like they plan on hiring fresh outs. And not even looking for the top. From the FAQ:
A traditional degree is not required. Candidates should demonstrate strong technical skills through their work experience, projects, or certifications. ...No fixed amount of work experience is required. Applicants must meet the minimum qualifications listed in each job announcement. What matters most is your ability to address critical government technology challenges.
Don't expect much to come out of this in two years.
Looks like this administration, and its rich/corporate supporters, are looking to train up people and test out technologies on the public's dime then hire those they like best. Another graft from the Dear Leader and his billionaire friends? /cynical
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They're not hiring professionals with experience... looks like they plan on hiring fresh outs. And not even looking for the top.
"Sometimes co-operation is more important than talent."
"Oh, I bet it is."
- from the 1987 TV series Amerika.
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I don't think so - nobody hires fresh-outs for $150,00-$200,00.
Unless this is all a sham for hiring the fresh-out children of those whose loyalty needs to be purchased, at pretty inflated rates.
Then further pressuring the private-sector companies to voluntarily "contribute" to this loyalty program after the 2 years is up by hiring the now available "engineers".
All of which seems to be right around the time of the next presidential election. Imagine that.
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Considering "the companies named in conjunction with the play" I think that failure is pretty much guaranteed. For that matter, I personally believe that's the plan.
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It doesn't have to work - it just needs to deposit billions of taxpayer dollars into those company bank accounts.
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Considering that the major backers are Meta, Oracle, XAi, and Palantir, they'll probably spend the rest of their first year of their two year stint arguing over which AI framework and hosting providers to use.
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How about we combine the chatbots, and create a compound one called the Allied Mastercomputer? That way, no worries about figuring out which to use.
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Now, SECRET+... it can take a long time
Since the Dear Leader has already stated that he can declassify anything with a thought, it's obvious that he can also clear anyone with a thought. And hey presto, more red tape cut and efficiency efficienced.
Making up for all the ones they fired? (Score:5, Informative)
https://federalnewsnetwork.com... [federalnewsnetwork.com]
no must kickback something to technology companies (Score:2)
no must kickback something to technology companies to get the job and signup for an 60+ hour work week
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Does this make up for all the IT people that the Trump administration fired because firing people makes the government more fficient? Including the US Cyber command, the NSA chief, and the people maintaining the IRS computer systems?
https://federalnewsnetwork.com... [federalnewsnetwork.com]
So efficient they got rid of all the E's.
Guess where they're gonna work (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Criminal recruitment (Score:2)
On one hand, you'll now be able to break laws with impunity.
On the other, Trump will destroy all aspects of your life, beyond measure.
Pigs at the trough.
Re: You are being too positive about Trump. (Score:2)
It would have been more futuristic (Score:2)
If he called it Tech Force 2000
How many are locals... (Score:2)
and how many will be on visas, "sub-contracted" or in any way indirect "hires" for cents where middlemen take giant cuts, and ultimately nothing of value gets done?
So they're using AI for Medicare denials (Score:1)
If you're somebody dependent on Medicare, and I mean Medicare and not medicaid, or somebody who is planning on being dependent on it then you need to start making a backup plan. There's a good chance that Trump will win again in 2028. It's also possible Vance will win if Trump's Alzheimer's is too advanced for him to run.
They're not going to just shut down Medicare they're going to use tricks like ai and whatnot to gr
This was a core plan of project 2025 (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the reasons Trump's coup attempt in 2020 failed was because so many government employees weren't on his side. So he's looking to replace them.
They also had one of the billionaire types by up the company that makes all of our voting machines. Also one company makes all of our voting machines so that's a thing...
The Republicans are currently doing Republican policies and they have a 30% approval rating. They aren't planning on losing 70% of the elections though. Last year about 7 million people were denied the right to vote using common voter suppression tricks. Illegal challenges to signatures and voter registrations with the understanding that you have to drive down on a weekday to fight that at the courthouse. Also multi hour wait times to vote in blue districts. It was also some really crazy shit like several swing state districts where the Democrats sweeped the down ballot races but Kamala didn't get a single vote.
In 2028 we can expect them to pull out all the stops. Trump said it himself you will never need to vote again.
Anyone working on an open source eVoting method? (Score:2)
Meaning something public/visible, being given away (free software and documentation), and with a government funding/planning to use it?
I'm sure someone smart in academia has already worked on it, but I wouldn't know where to start looking for the intersection of computer science and ???.
I've tossed around the beginnings of ideas, but eventually assumed effective digital identity + authentication was an initial requirement for effective remote electronic voting. Doesn't matter how perfect the system is if y
Given that the current needs ... (Score:2, Troll)
*Line persons. But then that DEI shit won't fly in his administration.
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Women who I have worked with call themselves "linemen", so I don't think that's a problem. The fact that almost all of them are Union members is probably more of an issue to this Sadministration.
Don't do it! (Score:2)
Anyone who "answers the call" will be very, very sorry.
The Mythical Man-Month (Score:2)
Back in the day, it was an article of faith that throwing more people at a project didn't speed it up, but rather had the opposite effect.
Not that this policy was ever intended to be anything but performative.
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The amount of times I have brought this up to clueless non-technical meddle managers these days is saddening. It's like they either stopped caring, or never cared in the first place. TTM at all costs to support short-term profits at all costs. I've never seen such harebrained schemes being used across so many companies as now. It's the big dumb.
Socialism for the rich... (Score:2)
Another government subsidy for large corporations and rich people.
Of course, everyone else will suffer with low wages, expensive health care, poor education, etc.
and then they will fire you (Score:2)
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I'm sure that was part of the whole purpose of DOGE, to destroy government employment as a viable career choice for competent people.
Re: and then they will fire you (Score:2)
Are they going to (Score:1)
Have an arena where people have to fight to the death to attain one of the positions? Like gladiators?
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The new plan (Score:2)
The original plan was, US DoGE creates an A.I. to run the government: Should you get a pay-cheque? Should you get a tax rebate/offset? The federal A.I. decides. Should you go to prison? Are you alive? I hope you see the problem, here. Elon's dream of earning hundreds of billions more government money, died: Legacy rules and purpose-built software killed it. But the plan to centralize information and planning, thus creating a U.S. Slave Force, continues. The new plan is, much of the I.T. and Commun
Rebrand of US Digital Service (Score:2)