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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