National Institute of Standards and Technology Takes a Closer Look at Artificial Intelligence

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) launched a public working group on Artificial Intelligence (AI). It wil build on the success of the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (RMF) to address this rapidly advancing technology, according to NIST. The Public Working Group on Generative AI will help address the opportunities and challenges associated with AI that can generate content, such as code, text, images, videos and music. The public working group will also help NIST develop key guidance to help organizations address the special risks associated with generative AI technologies. The announcement comes on the heels of a meeting President Joe Biden convened earlier this week with leading AI experts and researchers in San Francisco, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to seizing the opportunities and managing the risks posed by AI.

“President Biden has been clear that we must work to harness the enormous potential while managing the risks posed by AI to our economy, national security and society,” said US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said. “The recently released NIST AI Risk Management Framework can help minimize the potential for harm from generative AI technologies. Building on the framework, this new Public Working Group will help provide essential guidance for those organizations that are developing, deploying, and using generative AI, and who have a responsibility to ensure its trustworthiness.”

The public working group will draw upon volunteers with technical experts from the private and public sectors and will focus on risks related to this class of AI, which is driving fast-pasted changes in technologies and marketplace offerings.

“This new group is especially timely considering the unprecedented speed, scale and potential impact of generative AI and its potential to revolutionize many industries and society more broadly,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Laurie E. Locascio. “We want to identify and develop tools to better understand and manage those risks, and we hope to attract broad participation in this new group.”

NIST laid out short-, mid- and long-term goals for the working group. Initially, it will serve as a vehicle for gathering input on guidance that describes how the NIST AI Risk Management Profile (AI RMF) may be used to support development of generative AI technologies. This type of guidance, called a profile, will support and encourage the use of the AI RMF in addressing related risks.

In the mid-term, the working group will support NIST’s work on testing, evaluation and measurement related to generative AI. This will include support of NIST’s participation in the AI Village at the 2023 DEF CON, the longest-running and largest underground hacking conference.

Longer term, the group will explore specific opportunities to increase the likelihood that powerful generative AI technologies are productively used to address top challenges in areas such as health, the environment and climate change. The group can help ensure that risks are addressed and managed before, during and after AI applications are developed and used.

Those interested in joining the NIST Generative AI Public Working Group, which will be facilitated via a collaborative online workspace, should complete this form no later than July 9. Participants will have the opportunity to choose to help develop the generative AI profile for the AI RMF as part of their contributions to the group.

Generative AI is also the subject of the first two in a new series of NIST video interviews with leaders in AI to explore issues critical to improving the trustworthiness of fast-paced AI technologies. Part 1 features Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic, and Navrina Singh, founder and CEO of CREDO AI, who are interviewed by Elham Tabassi, associate director for emerging technologies in NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory. In Part 2, Rishi Bomassani, a Ph.D. student at Stanford University, and Irene Solaiman, policy director at Hugging Face, are interviewed by Reva Schwartz, principal investigator, AI bias, at NIST. All videos in the “NIST Conversations on AI” series will be available on the NIST website.

Additionally, today, the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee delivered its first report to the President and identified areas of focus for the committee for the next two years. The full report, including all of its recommendations, can be accessed on the AI.gov website.

Questions about the Public Working Group or NIST’s other work relating to Generative AI may be sent to: [email protected].