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The Urgency of the Moment for Congress on AI and National Security

The Urgency of the Moment for Congress on AI and National Security

United States Capitol, washington d.c.

(Editor’s Note: This article is the fifth and final article in a series first published by our friends at Just Security that is dives into the foundational barriers to the broad integration of AI in the IC – culture, budget, acquisition, risk, and oversight. This article considers a modified approach to congressional oversight of the IC. The author’s full report examining all of the topics in this series in greater depth is available here.)

Throughout this series, I have explored the most pressing foundational issues impacting the Intelligence Community’s (IC) ability to meet the urgency of this moment in the global artificial intelligence (AI) race. The current bipartisan support for taking bold action to drive national security use of AI is key to the IC’s success. That support must propel change in the priority areas I have already identified: modernizing the IC’s budget and acquisition processes and enabling a risk-tolerant culture with a new IC AI risk assessment framework that helps IC officers navigate the uncertainty that necessarily accompanies technological innovation. There is one other area, however, that cannot be ignored if the IC is to keep pace with our nation’s adversaries and provide policymakers with accurate, timely, and impactful insights: congressional oversight.

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