On Tuesday, Google LLC announced that Google Public Sector had been granted authority to operate at top-secret security levels, marking a big step forward in the company’s partnership with the federal government.

“Google and the Google Cloud platform is a zero-trust architecture,” said Karen Dahut (pictured), chief executive officer of Google Public Sector at Google. “We are the pioneers in zero trust. Our entire architecture is predicated on zero trust. When I talk about Google Cloud having all of the commercial technologies of zero trust built in, that’s what I mean. It’s built into our company’s DNA.”

Dahut spoke with theCUBE Research analysts John Furrier and Rebecca Knight at Google Cloud Next 2024, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the importance of security in the cloud and how generative AI is impacting the public sector. (* Disclosure below.)

Implementing generative AI in the public sector

Because of the guardrails and security clearances required, progress can seem slow when it comes to implementing new technology in government programs. But generative AI could prove transformative, according to Dahut.

“We’ve been building generative AI and AI into all of our products for a very long time,” she said. “We know from surveys that we do with state and local governments, as well as our federal government leaders, that they have already been working with generative AI. They see it as a game changer for them. They want to rapidly adopt, and they’re trying to implement it as speedily as they can.”

Although commercial enterprises and the public sector are often perceived as very different entities, they have many of the same use cases, including automation and personal assistants. However, government employees can sometimes be hampered by legacy technology and budgetary restrictions, according to Dahut.

“Do [employees] want to make a difference? 100%. Is it easy for them to do? Not as easy as it should be,” she said. “But the applications of gen AI to make a difference in the workforce, to customers, to product development are common. I think the only thing that we have to pay attention to is, clearly, there are bad intentions out there by our nation state threat actors that we have to make sure that our products are foundationally secure, built in, not bolted on.”

In addition to providing security, Google can use gen AI to help government employees decipher legacy databases. One example is when Google helped the New York State Department of Labor work through a backlog of unemployed benefits during the pandemic.

“The applications of generative AI across public sector are wide ranging and massive,” Dahut said. “Where I think generative AI makes a tremendous difference, you don’t have to rip and replace technology. You can leverage existing legacy technologies. You can leverage existing data stores.”

Partnerships with other companies will continue to be a key part of Google Public Sector’s success, according to Dahut, who highlighted Google’s recent purchase of Mandiant, a security powerhouse, and partnership with Accenture PLC.

“Our job is to educate, is to show, not tell how [gen AI] can be really effective,” she said, “Then to make a difference in the lives of government workers and citizens.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of Google Cloud Next 2024: 

(* Disclosure: Google sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Google nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE