The White House's new AI memorandum on national security issues includes directives on hiring and training of AI talent. YayaErnst / Getty Images
White House memo on AI national security includes workforce training and streamlined immigration proposals
The new AI guidelines detail how select agencies should approach risks and challenges tied to the emerging technology, but also include elements of how the U.S. should procure and train talent to capitalize on its benefits.
New guidelines set down by the Biden administration Thursday towards applying artificial intelligence to the nation’s national security goals include new efforts around training some federal personnel and streamlining the immigration of talent outside the U.S.
The memorandum, which details how the federal government should both capitalize on the potential and manage the risk of AI, lays out what roles agency leaders from the intelligence community, Defense, State, Treasury, Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security, Justice and Health and Human Services departments, as well as the Office of Management and Budget and others, will play in maintaining the nation’s strategic advantage with the technology.
“AI has emerged as an era-defining technology and has demonstrated significant and growing relevance to national security. The United States must lead the world in the responsible application of AI to appropriate national security functions,” the memorandum said. “AI, if used appropriately and for its intended purpose, can offer great benefits. If misused, AI could threaten United States national security, bolster authoritarianism worldwide, undermine democratic institutions and processes, facilitate human rights abuses, and weaken the rules-based international order.
Among the talent roles agencies will play is identifying, within the next 120 days, education and training opportunities for bolstering the AI competencies of the respective workforces in the State, Defense, Justice, Energy and Homeland Security departments and the IC, including initiatives around skills-based hiring.
The memorandum also calls for agencies to, where appropriate, revise their hiring and retention policies around responsibly adopting AI to better assess their talent needs.
“These policies and strategies shall identify financial, organizational and security hurdles, as well as potential mitigations consistent with applicable law,” the document said. “Such measures shall also include consideration of programs to attract experts with relevant technical expertise from industry, academia and civil society — including scholarship for service programs — and similar initiatives that would expose Government employees to relevant non-government entities in ways that build technical, organizational, and cultural familiarity with the AI industry.”
The White House called for agencies to utilize currently available authorities, which include direct hire and Schedule A implementation authorities finalized by the Office of Personnel Management in January.
To alleviate challenges in obtaining AI talent, the memorandum directs the National Security Advisor to coordinate with relevant department and agency heads within 90 days to determine how to streamline the processing of visa applications for applicants specialized in AI and other sensitive technologies.
The memorandum also details how the Commerce Department’s AI Safety Institute will serve as the federal government’s representative to industry, helping lead testing for the “safety, security and trustworthiness of frontier AI models” while agencies also work to assess and mitigate the risk of bias and potential violations of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, privacy, safety and instances of discrimination through the use of the technology.
The document corresponds with objectives in the president’s 2023 AI executive order on the safe and secure deployment of AI, which included policy and talent benchmarks around AI implementation.