The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has launched steerage to assist federal companies handle threat and efficiency when procuring commercially supplied synthetic intelligence (AI) merchandise.
This steerage — supplied within the “Advancing the Responsible Acquisition of Artificial Intelligence in Government” memorandum (M2418) — builds on an earlier steerage that was launched in March, the OMB mentioned in a Friday (Oct. 4) fact sheet.
Whereas the sooner memorandum (M-24-10) launched government-wide binding necessities for companies centered on the use of AI, the brand new one helps companies with the acquisition of the know-how, in keeping with the actual fact sheet.
“Company acquisition of AI is analogous in lots of respects to the acquisition of different sorts of info know-how, however it additionally presents novel challenges,” the actual fact sheet mentioned. “M-24-18 helps companies anticipate and deal with these challenges by issuing necessities and offering suggestions round three strategic objectives.”
These objectives embody managing AI threat and efficiency, selling a aggressive AI market and guaranteeing collaboration throughout the federal authorities, in keeping with the actual fact sheet.
The steerage consists of finest practices and particular necessities for managing AI threat and efficiency, with further necessities buying AI use circumstances that influence rights and security; suggestions for minimizing vendor lock-in and securing good contractor efficiency; and options for working with different companies to assist efficient and accountable acquisition of AI, per the actual fact sheet.
“As half of the Biden-Harris Administration’s complete technique for accountable innovation, the steerage is designed to function a primary step towards serving to companies and distributors develop collectively because the AI market continues to evolve — charting the course for guaranteeing that Federal acquisition of AI permits companies to responsibly optimize the providers they ship for the American folks,” the actual fact sheet mentioned.
When releasing its earlier steerage on the use of AI in March, the OMB required federal companies to establish and mitigate the potential dangers of AI.
These guidelines require every federal company to designate a chief AI officer, who’s accountable for coordinating the implementation of the know-how and guaranteeing compliance with the coverage, and created detailed and publicly accessible inventories of their AI techniques, highlighting use circumstances that might influence security or civil rights.
