Federal Hiring Signals AI Is Here to Stay  ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Host Built AIbox.ai To Cut Subscription Overhead** - Jaeden Schafer describes building AIbox.ai to avoid many overlapping subscriptions and high costs. - He offers a $20/month platform aggregating 40 top AI models as a personal solution. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer I paid for OpenAI, Grok, you know, 11 labs for audio, Gemini, and like a dozen other things. And it added up really fast. And so because of that, I built something called AIbox.ai. It's just $20 a month and you get access to 40 of the top AI models all in one platform. So there's a bunch of text, image, audio, basically everything you need in one place. So you don't have to juggle a bunch of tabs. You don't have to waste money on overlapping subscriptions. If you want to try it out, you can click the link in the description to AIbox.ai. It's my own startup. I'd love for you to let me know what you think about it. ([Time 0:01:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0873b037-7e46-48e0-9978-d53ad33b96c7)) - **Government Is Committing To Building, Not Just Regulating** - The federal tech hiring push aims to embed skilled technologists inside agencies to actually build and modernize systems. - Jaeden Schafer emphasizes this is about shipping working software, not policy or theoretical research. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer The federal government wants to recruit about a thousand highly skilled technologists to work inside of government agencies on a temporary basis. The roles are expected to last about two years, right? So it feels like, you know, maybe they feel like we have this window where we need to make a big rush, or maybe it's for budgeting reasons. If they just say they're going to work for two years, then it's not like, you know, oh my gosh, the government's getting this much bigger. So they're going to focus on areas like AI, software engineering, data science, cybersecurity, technological project management. I think this isn't really about policy writing or theoretical research. The goal that they're working on is just to build systems and to modernize the infrastructure. ([Time 0:01:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c17c9e20-2359-48bb-8fb3-ed4f8bde4d65)) - **Legacy Code Drives Cost And Friction** - Legacy federal systems slow projects, raise costs, and produce poor user experiences. - Jaeden Schafer links outdated codebases to bloated contractor spending and systemic inefficiency. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer A lot of federal systems run on legacy code that is over 10 years old. So some agencies are still relying on programming languages and infrastructure that most modern engineers have never touched, which is really terrifying if you think about it. Because of this, there's a bunch of negative consequences. Obviously, projects are going to move a lot slower. The costs go up dramatically. The user experience is terrible. The UI on a lot of this stuff is horrible. I think government employees and the public are both frustrated by this. And so historically, the solution has been to rely heavily on contractors, right, outside contractors. And while there are some great contractors out there, I think the model has also led to bloated costs. Like, it's no secret or surprise that when the government pays for something, they pay 10 times what they should. The timelines are very slow. ([Time 0:02:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f3dc1e2f-cb91-4afe-9de0-ef45b624f245)) - **Embed Talent To Transfer Institutional Knowledge** - Bring experts directly into agencies to transfer knowledge and upskill civil servants. - Jaeden Schafer suggests embedding technologists to work alongside career staff for lasting capability growth. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer They're going to try to bring the experts inside, not just have them as contractors. And then they're going to work directly within the agencies inside of teams at the agency. So this, the goal is they're going to be helping with design, building, and then deploying systems alongside career civil servants. So people have always been working in the government. I think the idea is not just to deliver projects, but to transfer knowledge and then also improve internal capabilities. So it's like, honestly, in a way, it's like we're upskilling a lot of federal workers who might have been working on legacy systems. ([Time 0:04:28](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2fb373fa-a6c7-4cd6-adfb-ebb8fded0bb3)) - **Use Time-Limited Fellowships To Attract Talent** - Use fixed-term, competitive fellowships to attract private-sector technologists. - Jaeden Schafer notes a two-year, well-paid 'tour of duty' lowers barriers to public service. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer I think another important detail is the temporary nature of this. This isn't, you know, people asking to commit their entire years to government service. It's more just like a fixed term fellowship. You know, some people call it a tour of duty, but basically you come in, you work on some sort of high impact problem, and then you decide whether to stay or then go return to the private Sector. I think that structure matters because it kind of changes who might apply for the job. A lot of talented, you know, developers or technologists, they're open to public service, but they don't really want to commit to like a long term thing, especially if it means lower Pay or slower career progression. So a two-year commitment with really competitive compensation, it's going to lower the barrier significantly. ([Time 0:05:04](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3f3597a8-5cac-4a37-9d05-caa05a4f2936)) - **AI Suits Structured, Repetitive Government Work** - AI fits government use cases with large structured data and repetitive workflows. - Jaeden Schafer highlights AI's strength in fraud detection, automation, and decision support across agencies. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer First, AI data systems. So this includes building AI tools to improve efficiency, automating routine processes, detecting fraud, they'll be analyzing large data sets, they'll be, you know, it'll help To support better decision making across agencies. I think AI is particularly good for, it's going to be well suited for government use cases where there's a lot of structured data and repetitive workflows. ([Time 0:06:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8130ccc0-4c6d-4b8e-9205-b893b0712475)) - **Monitor Execution Risks Closely** - Watch execution details like recruiting, scope creep, and bureaucracy when evaluating this initiative. - Jaeden Schafer recommends monitoring whether the tech force can overcome federal red tape to deliver results. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer There's a lot to watch out for on this deal, how it's executed, how they're going to be doing the recruiting, if there's going to be scope creep. I mean, just are they actually going to be able to get anything done with the bureaucracy and red tape that is the federal government? So we'll be following up on all of that and keeping you informed. ([Time 0:07:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b45a14b9-4ce1-45d6-9ef1-b39b4345f3b1))