NSA will establish an AI Security Center.

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly important to national security, the US will form an organization devoted to the secure use of AI in national security systems and in the defense industrial base that supplies them.

The AI Security Center aims to secure a US advantage.

The Director of the US National Security Agency, General Paul Nakasone, announced this week that NSA will establish a new AI Security Center. Its mission will be to help keep the US ahead of foreign peer competitors in the use of AI.

Breaking Defense quotes General Nakasone as saying, “The AI Security Center will become NSA’s focal point for leveraging foreign intelligence insights, contributing to the development of best practices, guidelines, principles, evaluation methodology and risk frameworks for AI security, with an end goal of promoting the secure development, integration and adoption of AI capabilities within our national security systems and our defense industrial base,”

Aspects of AI security.

AI security means, among other things, bringing up AI right, in terms of training and performance..

General Nakasone offered a brief account of what AI security actually means. “AI security is about protecting AI systems from learning, doing and revealing the wrong thing. It is a set of practices to protect AI systems and lifecycles from digital attacks, theft and damage. We must build a robust understanding of AI vulnerabilities, foreign intelligence threats to these AI systems and ways to counter the threat in order to have AI security. We must also ensure that malicious foreign actors can’t steal America’s innovative AI capabilities to do so.”

The AI Security Center will be a center of collaboration.

Thus the AI Security Center has a protective mission. It will be housed within NSA’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, and it is expected to work closely with interagency and private sector partners. The Center’s size and leadership, the Record says, are yet to be announced.

Emily Phelps, Director at Cyware, sees the collaborative potential as the new Center’s most important contribution. “In an era where technological advancements are both an advantage and a potential threat, centralizing expertise and capabilities can foster rapid development while ensuring that vulnerabilities are addressed quickly,” she wrote in emailed comments. “Collaborative initiatives with the Defense Department, intelligence community, academia, and international partners can provide a holistic approach to AI-supported security. It's crucial for the US to not only maintain but enhance its leadership in AI, ensuring that its innovative capabilities remain protected.”