Raimondo announces plans for global network of AI Safety Institutes and future convening in the San Francisco area, where the U.S. AI Safety Institute recently established a presence
Today, as the AI Seoul Summit begins, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo released a strategic vision for the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI), describing the department’s approach to AI safety under President Biden’s leadership. At President Biden’s direction, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) within the Department of Commerce launched the AISI, building on NIST’s long-standing work on AI.
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo speaks on Day 1 of the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park on Nov. 1, 2023 in Bletchley, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
In addition to releasing a strategic vision, Raimondo also shared the department’s plans to work with a global scientific network for AI safety through meaningful engagement with AI Safety Institutes and other government-backed scientific offices, and to convene the institutes later this year in the San Francisco area, where the AISI recently established a presence.
The strategic vision released today, available here, outlines the steps that the AISI plans to take to advance the science of AI safety and facilitate safe and responsible AI innovation. At the direction of President Biden, NIST established the AISI and has since built an executive leadership team that brings together some of the brightest minds in academia, industry and government.
It also highlights steps that the AI Safety Institute, which is housed within Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, might help promote and evaluate more advanced models, including red-teaming and A/B testing. Commerce expects the labs of NIST — which is still facing ongoing funding challenges — to conduct much of this work.
The strategic vision 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:
Advance the science of AI safety;
Articulate, demonstrate, and disseminate the practices of AI safety; and
Support institutions, communities, and coordination around AI safety.
The release of the strategy is only the latest step taken by the Commerce Department, which is leading much of the Biden administration’s work on emerging technology.
Earlier this year, the AI Safety Institute announced the creation of a consortium to help meet goals in the Biden administration’s executive order on the technology. In April, the Commerce Department added five new people to the AI Safety Institute’s executive leadership team.
That same month, Raimondo signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Kingdom focused on artificial intelligence. This past Monday, the UK’s technology secretary said its AI Safety Institute would open an outpost in the Bay Area, its first overseas office.
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