A new executive order titled “Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security” directs federal agencies to strengthen the cyber defense of government information systems and to coordinate more closely with the AI industry on emerging security risks.
Read the full executive order.
The order tasks agencies including the Department of Homeland Security (through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) and the Department of the Treasury with measures ranging from new cybersecurity guidance to the creation of an AI cybersecurity clearinghouse for identifying and remediating software vulnerabilities.
Of particular relevance to the standards community, the order calls for a benchmarking process to assess the advanced cyber capabilities of AI models and to determine when a model qualifies as a “covered frontier model,” to be developed in consultation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), among other agencies.
The order also establishes a voluntary framework under which AI developers could provide the federal government with access to such models prior to broader release, subject to confidentiality and intellectual property protections. The order specifies that this framework does not authorize any mandatory government licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement for new AI models.