The agency, tasked with securing U.S. borders, announced the
hiring effort at an event in Mountain View, California,
headlined by Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Chief Artificial
Intelligence Officer Eric Hysen.
“Government needs the support and expertise of our country’s
foremost AI experts to help ensure our continued ability to
harness this technology responsibly, safeguard against its
malicious use, and advance our critical homeland security
mission,” Mayorkas said in a statement.
The agency did not provide specifics on what the experts will
do, but noted that they would provide expertise in cybersecurity,
data science and software engineering.
The plan is part of the Biden administration's nascent efforts
to harness the potential benefits of AI while reining in the
biggest threats it poses, where Europe has made much more
significant progress.
Generative AI, which can create text, photos and videos in
response to open-ended prompts, in recent months has spurred
excitement as well as fears it could make some jobs obsolete and
upend elections by making it difficult to distinguish between
fact and false information.
Officials on Tuesday highlighted ways that AI is already helping
the DHS crack down on illegal drug imports by using a machine
learning model to identify suspicious patterns in vehicles
crossing the border, which has led to 240 drug seizures.
The agency is also already using a machine learning model to
enhance older images, allowing it to identify 300 previously
unknown victims of sexual exploitation as well as some
perpetrators. And AI is helping the department's Federal
Emergency Management Agency more efficiently assess damage to
homes and buildings after a natural disaster.
“Now is the time for tech experts to make a real difference for
our country and join the federal government,” said Hysen.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper in WashingtonEditing by Anna
Driver and Matthew Lewis)
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