NIST to Develop Profile for Trustworthy AI in Critical Infrastructure

Your Input Matters: Join NIST Community of Interest

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing a new profile under its AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) to address challenges facing critical infrastructure sectors including energy, water, and transportation. Stakeholders are invited to join a Community of Interest to help shape how AI risk management guidelines apply to their work.

Bringing AI Trustworthiness to Critical Infrastructure

Part of NIST’s Strategy for American Technology Leadership in the 21st Century, the profile will serve as a guide outlining specific risk management practices for critical infrastructure operators to consider when engaging AI tools, ultimately helping them clearly communicate AI requirements to developers, operators, and other partners.

Use Cases Across AI Sectors

Examples of AI systems that may be used in critical infrastructure include:

• AI agents for autonomous cybersecurity incident response with tested and verified guardrails
• Facility and plant monitoring systems hardened against adversarial input
• Diagnostic assistants that use AI bills of materials to provide traceable, auditable recommendations
• Physics-informed AI systems for predicting and maintaining system stability with verifiable performance guarantees
• Autonomous robots and vehicles with multimodal sensing and deterministic fail-safe controllers
• AI-powered digital twins for managing critical data centers during emergencies
• AI optimization systems that degrade gracefully under adverse conditions while alerting human supervisors
• Transparent, explainable compliance and risk monitoring systems with human-in-the-loop oversight

The Standards Community Can Shape the Profile

NIST invites all stakeholders to join the Trustworthy AI in Critical Infrastructure Profile Community of Interest and provide relevant input and feedback via seminars, working sessions, and responses to potential requests for information, position papers, and drafts. The standards community can provide input on relevant standards, policies, industry conventions, and governance documents to which the profile should align.

Access more information and the concept note via the NIST article.