US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Unveils Strategic Plan for AI Safety

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo recently unveiled a strategic vision for the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) at the AI Seoul Summit, outlining the department’s approach to AI safety under President Biden’s guidance.

Raimondo disclosed the department’s intentions to collaborate with a global scientific network focused on AI safety.

The AISI was launched by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) within the Department of Commerce at President Biden’s behest, leveraging NIST’s extensive history in AI research.

This collaboration will involve engaging with AI Safety Institutes and other government-backed scientific entities. Furthermore, the department plans to host a gathering of these institutes later this year in the San Francisco area, where the AISI recently established its presence.

“Recent advances in AI carry exciting, lifechanging potential for our society, but only if we do the hard work to mitigate the very real dangers of AI that exist if it is not developed and deployed responsibly. That is the focus of our work every single day at the U.S. AI Safety Institute, where our scientists are fully engaged with civil society, academia, industry, and the public sector so we can understand and reduce the risks of AI, with the fundamental goal of harnessing the benefits,” said Raimondo. 

The Strategic Vision document describes the AISI’s philosophy, mission, and strategic goals.  Rooted in two core principles—first, that beneficial AI depends on AI safety; and second, that AI safety depends on science—the AISI aims to address key challenges, including a lack of standardized metrics for frontier AI, underdeveloped testing and validation methods, limited national and global coordination on AI safety issues, and more.

The AISI will focus on three key goals: 

1. Advance the science of AI safety;

2. Articulate, demonstrate, and disseminate the practices of AI safety; and

3. Support institutions, communities, and coordination around AI safety. 

To achieve these goals, the AISI plans to, among other activities, conduct testing of advanced models and systems to assess potential and emerging risks; develop guidelines on evaluations and risk mitigations, among other topics; and perform and coordinate technical research. The U.S. AI Safety Institute will work closely with diverse AI industry, civil society members, and international partners to achieve these objectives.