On the website of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), a robot-like hand reaches out to touch a human hand through a pane of glass as a bright light illuminates the importance of re-tooling the workforce for the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI).

The illustration is part of the VA’s promotion of its AI Communities, launched last year “to explore artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other frontier technologies and the impacts they will have on veterans and their families.” So far, VA officials said, nearly 600 employees have signed up, exchanging ideas over email groups and an intranet hub…

Throughout the government, these and other efforts are underway to train employees and the future workforce, and identify staff with AI skills: …

The VA is running an AI Tech Sprint in which teams compete to build prototype tool that will help agencies understand their employees’ skill sets in fields such as AI and curate individualized learning pathways… Read the full article here.