A new “Artificial Intelligence Security Center” is being established by the National Security Agency to support the safe development and application of AI capabilities and to protect AI advancements from external enemies.
Gen. Paul Nakasone, director of the NSA and commander of the Cyber Command, announced the information on Thursday during a gathering at the National Press Club.
“The AI Security Center will become the NSA’s focal point for leveraging foreign intelligence insights, contributing to the development of best practices guidelines, principles, evaluation methodology, and risk frameworks for AI security, with an end goal of promoting the secure development, integration, and adoption of AI capabilities within our national security systems and our defense industrial base,” said Nakasone.
Additionally, the center wants to “understand the threats against their intellectual property and collaborate to help prevent and eradicate threats,” Nakasone continued.
Over the past year, generative AI has seen fast developments and has become widely accessible, which has concerned national security leaders. Agencies are thinking about how to use automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to promote a variety of goals. Later this year, the Biden administration intends to release a fresh executive order on AI.
Although the U.S. now leads in this crucial field, Nakasone warned against taking this advantage for granted. “Our opponents, who have for years used intellectual property theft and exploitation to further their interests, will try to coop our advances in AI and corrupt our application on it.”
The center’s announcement coincides with the NSA’s ambitions to launch a brand-new “innovation pipeline” centered on China.
According to Nakasone, the NSA performed an AI assessment earlier this year that indicated a “clear need” for a focus on security. For the classified systems utilized by the Defense Department, the intelligence community, and cleared defense contractors, the NSA is in charge of establishing security requirements.
These companies “are increasingly acquiring, developing, and integrating AI capabilities into defense systems, cybersecurity, and mission capabilities,” according to Nakasone. “At the same time, adversaries are working hard to create and use their own AI, and we anticipate they will start looking into and taking advantage of weaknesses in U.S. and allied AI systems.”
He said that the new AI center would collaborate with business, government research labs, and universities. The Cybersecurity Collaboration Center was founded in 2021 as an unclassified facility to share cyber threat information with the private sector, and it will house the new institution.
