U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas speaks during a hearing with the Senate Homeland Security Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on April 18, 2023 in Washington, DC. Mayorkas announced the formation of a new DHS task force to address artificial intelligence during remarks on April 21. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The Homeland Security Department Announces Its First-Ever AI Task Force
The department will look to better understand artificial intelligence and deploy it in security operations.
On Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the formation of a new resource group focused solely on combating negative repercussions of the widespread advent of artificial intelligence technologies.
The AI Task Force, unveiled during Mayorkas’s remarks before a Council on Foreign Relations event, will analyze adverse impacts surrounding generative AI systems such as ChatGPT as well as potential uses for the emerging technology.
“The profound evolution in the homeland security threat environment, changing at a pace faster than ever before, has required our Department of Homeland Security to evolve along with it,” Mayorkas said.
Some of the focal points of the AI Task Force highlighted by DHS include integrating AI in supply chain and border trade management, countering the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., and applying AI to digital forensic tools to counter child exploitation and abuse.
Within 60 days of its establishment, the Task Force will submit a roadmap of milestones it looks to achieve.
“We will seek to deploy AI to more ably screen cargo, identify the importation of goods produced with forced labor, and manage risk,” the press release notes. “We will explore using this technology to better detect fentanyl shipments, identify and interdict the flow of precursor chemicals around the world, and target for disruption key nodes in the criminal networks.”
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill were quick to vocalize their support of the task force’s creation. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Science Committee, called DHS’s move “a positive step” toward better understanding and mitigating risks stemming from AI technologies.
“The pace of change for AI development has been incredible, helping to improve our national security while also dramatically changing the nature of the threats we face,” said Lofgren.