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Artificial Intelligence and
National Security
Articial intelligence will have immense implications for national and
international security, and AI’s potential applications for defense and
intelligence have been identied by the federal government as a major priority.
There are, however, signicant bureaucratic and technical challenges to the
adoption and scaling of AI across U.S. defense and intelligence organizations.
Moreover, other nations—particularly China and Russia—are also investing
in military AI applications. As the strategic competition intensies, the
pressure to deploy untested and poorly understood systems to gain competitive
advantage could lead to accidents, failures, and unintended escalation.
The Bipartisan Policy Center and Georgetown University’s Center for Security
and Emerging Technology (CSET), in consultation with Reps. Robin Kelly
(D-IL) and Will Hurd (R-TX), have worked with government oicials, industry
representatives, civil society advocates, and academics to better understand the
major AI-related national and economic security issues the country faces. This
paper hopes to shed more clarity on these challenges and provide actionable
policy recommendations, to help guide a U.S. national strategy for AI. BPC’s
eort is primarily designed to complement the work done by the Obama and
Trump administrations, including President Barack Obama’s 2016 The National
Articial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan,
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President Donald
Trump’s Executive Order 13859, announcing the American AI Initiative,
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and
the Oice of Management and Budget’s subsequent Guidance for Regulation
of Articial Intelligence Applications.
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The eort is also designed to further
advance work done by Kelly and Hurd in their 2018 Committee on Oversight
June 2020
