The Biden administration unveiled its first-ever National Security Memorandum (NSM) on Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Thursday, bolstering the role of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) AI Safety Institute (AISI) to be industry’s “primary port of contact” in the federal government. The NSM was required under Biden’s AI executive order released nearly one year ago and fills a gap in AI guidance for the intelligence community. Until now, the White House’s AI guidance has covered only non-national security systems, according to MeriTalk.
To ensure that the U.S. leads the world’s development of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI, the NSM directs actions to improve the security and diversity of chip supply chains, and to ensure that, as the U.S. supports the development of the next generation of government supercomputers and other emerging technology, it does so with AI in mind. The NSM also makes collection on competitors’ operations against the AI sector a top-tier intelligence priority and directs relevant federal agencies to provide AI developers with the timely cybersecurity and counterintelligence information necessary to keep their inventions secure.
As part of formally designating NIST’s AISI, the NSM lays out strengthened and streamlined mechanisms for the institute to partner with national security agencies, including the intelligence community, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy. The memo calls on the AISI to collaborate with industry to test frontier AI models that might pose a threat to national security and issue guidance on a variety of topics.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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