A new White House directive on artificial intelligence in part responds to concerns about China’s use of AI against its own people and against the United States and its allies, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday.
“We know that China is building its own technological ecosystem with digital infrastructure that won't protect sensitive data, that can enable mass surveillance and censorship, that can spread misinformation and that can make countries vulnerable to coercion,” he said in a speech to the National Defense University.
The new AI memorandum directs federal agencies to develop and use AI “to improve the security and diversity of chip supply chains.”
“We have to get this right, because there is probably no other technology that will be more critical to our national security in the years ahead,” Mr. Sullivan said.
The memorandum directs the US government to implement concrete and impactful steps to
(1) ensure that the United States leads the world’s development of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI;
(2) harness cutting-edge AI technologies to advance the U.S. Government’s national security mission; and (3) advance international consensus and governance around AI, according to a White House fact sheet.
“The NSM directs actions to improve the security and diversity of chip supply chains, and to ensure that, as the United States supports the development of the next generation of government supercomputers and other emerging technology, we do so with AI in mind,” the fact sheet states.
“Our competitors want to upend US AI leadership and have employed economic and technological espionage in efforts to steal US technology. This NSM makes collection on our competitors’ operations against our AI sector a top-tier intelligence priority, and directs relevant
US Government entities to provide AI developers with the timely cybersecurity and counterintelligence information necessary to keep their inventions secure.”
Alongside the National Security Memorandum itself, the White House is publishing a companion document called the Framework for AI Governance and Risk Management for National Security that provides guidance on how agencies can and cannot use AI.
The Administration is not walking away from international trade, but it is walking away from outdated trade policies that no longer work in a world grappling with issues like climate change and China’s unfair trade practices, Sullivan said Wednesday.
Mr. Sullivan delivered a strong defense of President Biden’s international economic policy in a speech at the Brookings Institution.
“We are not walking away from international trade and investment.” he told the gathering. “What we are doing is moving away from specific policies that frankly didn't contemplate the urgent challenges we face – the climate crisis,concentrated semiconductor supply chains, persistent attacks on workers rights. And not just more global competition, but more competition with a country that uses pervasive nonmarket policies and practices to distort and dominate global markets.”
“Ignoring or downplaying these realities will not help us chart a viable path forward. Our approach to trade responds to these challenges.”
The President has responded to these challenges with a modern industrial strategy that focuses on domestic investment, he said.
“We continue to believe deeply in the mutual benefits of international trade and investment, enhanced and enabled bypublic investment, bounded in rare but essential cases by principled controls on key national security technologies, protected against harmful nonmarket practices, labor and environment abuses, and coercion, coordinated with a broad range of partners.” he continued.
Strategic Tariffs, Controls
Mr. Sullivan rejected calls by former President Trump for across-the-board import tariffs, saying the evidence is clear that they would harm US workers, consumers and businesses. “That is why we chose instead to target tariffs at unfairpractices in strategic sectors where we and our allies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild our manufacturingand our resilience. Crucially, we are seeing partners in advance and emerging economies reached similar conclusions regarding overcapacity and take similar steps to ward off damage to their own industries.
The Administration – along with its allies – is pursuing a new trade approach that focuses on sector-specific trade agreements and economic partnerships.
The Administration also is being targeted when it comes to imposing export restrictions on key technologies, he said.“When it comes to a narrow set of sensitive technologies, yes, the fence is high, as it should be. And in the context of broader commerce, the yard is small, and we are not looking to expand it needlessly.”
[Sullivan AI Briefing]
White House Fact Sheet
Read the NSM here.
Read the frame work here.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here