Field Notes

Federal AI insights

Working knowledge from the edge of federal AI. Written for program managers, contracting officers, and small-business founders who have to make real decisions before the next deadline.

Recent posts

No filler. No reheated press releases. Every post is written by someone who has read the topic, filed the proposal, or deployed the system.

2026-04-16
Compliance

FedRAMP LLM Deployment in 2026: A Practical Map

Azure OpenAI, Bedrock in GovCloud, Vertex at IL4/IL5, open-weight models on SageMaker HyperPod. What you inherit, what you still have to build, and the mistakes that fail an ATO.

14 min read
2026-04-15
SBIR

DoD SBIR 26.1: How to Pick a Topic From 115 Options

How to read a DoD topic, score it against your technical center, and filter 115 topics down to the three you can win and transition. With a scoring rubric you can use tonight.

12 min read
2026-04-14
Policy

SBIR 2026 Reauthorization: What Actually Changed

S. 3971 reauthorized the SBIR/STTR program through September 30, 2031 after a six-month lapse. Per-firm caps, Strategic Breakthrough Phase II, Phase III training. What small AI firms should do in the next 30 days.

13 min read
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