Robert Silvers, under secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, said DHS is developing guidance to help critical infrastructure operators and owners securely deploy artificial intelligence tools in their operations, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.
“There’s tremendous promise, as you deploy AI to operate the grid — water supply, hospital systems, financial markets — you’re going to want to make sure, though, that that is done in a safe and secure way. That if things fail, it happens safely, not catastrophically, that you have adequate auditing and testing, that you give due consideration to when should certain kinds of decisions be made with a human in the loop, for example,” Silvers, a previous Wash100 awardee, told FNN on the sidelines of a conference Wednesday.
He said DHS is exploring new opportunities to leverage AI technology and is teaming up with AI companies to better understand the emerging technology’s capabilities and limitations.
The DHS official noted that the department sees the need to become one of the “early and aggressive adopters” of AI technology, which he said has been used in network defense activities.
“We should also be at the vanguard of establishing rules for responsible and ethical and safe use for our own programs,” he added.
