Homeland Security Head Announces Agency Is Creating Artificial Intelligence Task Force
While DHS imagines using AI to more efficiently conduct cargo screenings and fight child sex abuse, there are enhanced concerns about enhanced spying possibilities.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has announced that his agency would create a task force to figure out how to use artificial intelligence to support agency activities.
Mayorkas said the technology would “drastically alter the threat landscape,” adding: “Our department will lead in the responsible use of AI to secure the homeland and in defending against the malicious use of this transformational technology.”
Mayorkas said the Artificial Intelligence Task Force would also explore how AI could be used to do a better job of doing work like screening cargo coming into the country for illicit goods, like fentanyl or products made with slave labor.
Mayorkas also urged efforts to use AI to secure electric grids and water supply systems, both of which have been feared to be potential targets of adversaries.
“The rapid pace of technological change – the pivotal moment we are now in – requires that we also act today,” he said.
Mayorkas is giving his task force 60 days to develop all sorts of dewy-eyed plans…except for southern border security.
The department said another possible way to deploy AI could help officials find victims of child sexual abuse and their abusers. But DHS did not list any more specific ideas on how to use AI to secure the southwestern U.S. border.
“I recently asked our Homeland Security Advisory Council, co-chair Jamie Gorelick is here, to study the intersection of AI and homeland security and deliver findings that will help guide our use of it and defense against it,” Mayorkas said. “The rapid pace of technological change – the pivotal moment we are now in – requires that we also act today.”
Pairing AI with homeland security issues is concerning, as the deep-fake and spying abilities could be enhanced….and that is more likely to be a priority for Mayorkas than the border or illegal drugs.
Especially as the spying may be at the behest of another country. For example, in July, two Homeland Security employees were charged with their involvement in a possible Chinese spying scheme.
U.S. prosecutors charged two men tied to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as part of what federal law enforcement officials have called a “transnational repression scheme” on behalf of the Chinese government to spy on and harass dissidents living in the United States.
Asked for comment, aspokesman for China’s embassy in Washington said it was “not aware of the specific situation” but that Beijing “firmly opposes acts by the U.S. that groundlessly malign and smear China.”
The two men charged were Craig Miller, who has worked as a DHS deportation officer for 15 years in Minnesota, and Derrick Taylor, a retired DHS law enforcement agent now working as a private investigator in California, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday.
On Wednesday, a grand jury returned an indictment charging the two men and three others with crimes committed while acting as alleged Chinese agents, the department said in a statement.
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Comments
Since they have no intelligence of the genuine kind, I would guess they need an artificial intelligence
Beat me too it.
The jokes just write themselves.
This guy is poster boy for anything artificial.
AI will destroy what disobeys as well as what exploits.
Man’s own understanding that does not exist.
Not what we need but I understand we need something to move these mouth breathers along.
He needs to have his own head chipped first.
I think you mispeld “chopped”.
Works both ways, I think.
First one, then the other.
Oh goody, more bureaucracy, just what we need.
On other hand if it’s their replacement, AI, it can’t be worse can it?
Because these guys have done so well with the technologies they do use…
So many of Biden’s appointees are henchmen. Mayorkas is near the top.
The funny thing is that replicating boilerplate, meaningless mission-statement bureaucratese like his prepared remarks is one of the few things AI does really well.
It can collect passwords.
ChatGPT paid an Indian gigworker to solve a CAPTCHA for it, by lying that it was a vision- and motor-disabled person.
The new generation of AIs will just roofie and rape your laptop’s Siri.
On the one hand, he’s right that AI is changing the “threat landscape.” On the other hand, I don’t think the folks at DHS have either the intelligence or the knowledge to understand how. This is quite worrisome.
This is one of those rare moments when a transforming technology is not really controlled by anyone. The attempt will certainly be made, as it was with printing, radio, television, the internet.
Instead of drifting into somebody else’s lane, he needs to pay attention to the job HE has.
No dessert for you, Sluggo, until you finish all the border control on your plate.
Oh joy! More big govt intrusion under the guise of public safety. Sooner or later more folks need to catch onto the playbook but I am beginning to have doubts they can.
My first thought was a snarky one about a dumbass trying to create artificial intelligence, but Mayorkas isn’t dumb. He’s evil.
Well if they aren’t going to enforce immigration laws, they aren’t going to use it on the border.
And given Biden is in China’s pocket, they aren’t going to use it against the CCP.
And Biden wants to give Iran Nukes, so they won’t use it against Iran.
And Antifa is just an idea, so they won’t use it on those domestic terrorists or looters.
Huh, wonder who is left? Parents who attend school board meetings and pro-life protestors and people fighting for vote integrity I guess?
Oh goody, a “task force.” We Americans can rest assured that the government’s best and brightest (cough) are on the job. Sleep easier, citizens.
In your Matrix pod, providing power for our robotic overlords.