The White House is directing the Pentagon and intelligence agencies to increase their adoption of artificial intelligence, expanding the Biden administration’s efforts to curb technological competition from China and other adversaries.
The edict is part of a landmark national security memorandum published Thursday. It aims to make government agencies step up experiments and deployments of AI.
The memo also bans agencies from using the technology in ways that “do not align with democratic values,” according to a White House news release.
“This is our nation’s first-ever strategy for harnessing the power and managing the risks of AI to advance our national security,” said national security adviser Jake Sullivan as he described the new policy to students during an appearance at the National Defense University in Washington.
Sullivan called the speed of change in AI “breathtaking” and said it had the potential to affect fields ranging from nuclear physics to rocketry and stealth technology.
The White House believes that providing clear rules for using AI will make it easier for government agencies to use the technology, according to a briefing with senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the report before its publication.
“We must outcompete our adversaries,” said one of the officials. “With a lack of policy clarity and legal clarity of what can and can’t be done, we are likely to see less experimentation.”
The United States currently has a “strong hand” in AI and its companies dominate the field, another of the officials said. Maintaining that lead to avoid a “strategic surprise” from rivals including China is a key government priority, the official said.
The memo is the latest example of the Biden administration trying to respond to concerns about the potential downsides of AI while also encouraging government use of the technology and allowing tech companies in the United States to keep innovating in the field.
Privacy and democracy advocates argue that AI could give Big Tech more power over Americans’ lives and potentially be used by government agencies to undermine civil rights.
“This balance between innovation and responsible use is exactly what the U.S. needs in the AI space,” said Divyansh Kaushik, a vice president at Beacon Global Strategies, a national security advisory firm.
Over the past two years, since OpenAI’s ChatGPT sparked a boom of new interest and investment in AI, regulators and politicians in Washington have scrambled to understand and begin regulating new forms of the technology rapidly being adopted by businesses and governments.
The national security memo was written in response to an expansive executive order on AI signed by President Joe Biden last year. It called for the government to study how to foster AI innovation while also making sure the technology didn’t harm people.
Thursday’s memo directs the government to help U.S. companies defend their AI technology from being stolen by foreign spies, and to continue working on diversifying the supply chain for high-end computer chips crucial to cutting-edge AI projects. Most of those chips are currently produced in Taiwan.
The framework also directs national security agencies to expand their use of the most advanced AI systems while also prohibiting certain uses, such as applications that would violate constitutionally protected civil rights or any system that would automate the deployment of nuclear weapons.
RIGHTS AND PRIVACY
Civil rights groups have closely watched the government’s increasing use of AI and expressed concern that the technology could easily be abused.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday the government was giving too much discretion to national security agencies, which would be allowed to “police themselves.”
“Despite acknowledging the considerable risks of AI, this policy does not go nearly far enough to protect us from dangerous and unaccountable AI systems,” said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of ACLU’s National Security Project, in a statement. “If developing national security AI systems is an urgent priority for the country, then adopting critical rights and privacy safeguards is just as urgent.”
The guidelines were created following an ambitious executive order signed by Biden last year that called on federal agencies to create policies for how AI could be used.
Officials said the rules are needed not only to ensure that AI is used responsibly but also to encourage the development of new AI systems and see that the U.S. keeps up with China and other rivals also working to harness the technology’s power.
Sullivan said AI is different from past innovations that were largely developed by the government: space exploration, the internet and nuclear weapons and technology. Instead, the development of AI systems has been led by the private sector.
Now, he said, it is “poised to transform our national security landscape.”
Several AI industry figures contacted by The Associated Press praised the new policy, calling it an essential step in ensuring America does not yield a competitive edge to other nations.
Chris Hatter, chief information security officer at Qwiet.ai, a tech company that uses AI to scan for weaknesses in computer code, said he thought the policy should attract bipartisan support.
Without a policy in place, the U.S. might fall behind on the “most consequential technology shift of our time.”
“The potential is massive,” Hatter said. “In military operations, we’ll see autonomous weaponry — like the AI-powered F-16 and drones — and decision support systems augmenting human intelligence.”
AI is already reshaping how national security agencies manage logistics and planning, improve cyber defenses and analyze intelligence, Sullivan said, adding that other applications may emerge as the technology develops.
MILITARY USE
Military commanders, members of the Biden administration and politicians in Congress have framed AI as an area in which the United States must compete with China if it is to maintain military and economic dominance. The U.S. government has banned the export to the country of certain computer chips that are key to advanced AI programs.
The military has long been an early adopter of some forms of AI, such as image-recognition algorithms that process satellite photos to identify potential targets and cruise missiles that can fly themselves over complex terrain. But military analysts say AI will play an increasingly central role in military competition in the years to come, especially as the U.S. and China vie for influence in the Pacific.
Intelligence analysts still manually sift through huge volumes of data from satellites, human spies and sensors on ships and planes to piece together a picture of potential military threats. AI advocates both outside and within the Pentagon say the technology could synthesize that information much faster and give commanders insights that enable better or quicker decisions on the battlefield.
In the vast Pacific, more sophisticated AI on airborne and oceangoing drones could let them operate more independently, allowing the United States to monitor and control the region more effectively.
Lethal autonomous drones, which are capable of taking out an enemy at their own discretion, remain a key concern. Last year, the U.S. issued a declaration calling for international cooperation on setting standards for autonomous drones.
China’s tech industry may be officially cut off from the most advanced AI computer chips by U.S. export controls, but tech industry and military leaders say the country isn’t far behind the United States.
Privacy and civil rights advocates have warned that the same AI technology the U.S. military and intelligence establishment use against their adversaries could also be turned against American citizens by their own government.
Police departments across the United States routinely use face recognition technology in investigations, while seldom disclosing such activity, according to a recent Washington Post investigation. Autonomous drone and robot technology developed in past years with support from the Pentagon is now also used by law enforcement agencies.
The memo “unequivocally states” that the government should use AI only in ways that “align with democratic values,” according to a fact sheet about the document provided by a White House spokesperson. The memo also specifically requires agencies to monitor the risk AI systems can pose when it comes to privacy, discrimination and human rights, according to the fact sheet.
Michael Horowitz, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania who worked at the Pentagon on AI policy from 2022 until earlier this year, said the policy balances the need to speed up AI adoption with safety concerns. Now it’s up to the government to follow through.
“Implementation will be critical to ensure the reality on the ground matches the ambition of the vision,” said Horowitz.
Information for this article was contributed by Gerrit De Vynck, Ellen Nakashima, Cat Zakrzewski and Eva Dou of The Washington Post and by David Klepper of The Associated Press.
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Publish date : 2024-10-24 21:49:00
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