The State Department has issued an enterprise strategy to guide the responsible and ethical development, procurement and application of artificial intelligence to advance U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy.
The department said Thursday the inaugural Enterprise AI Strategy outlines four strategic goals to harness AI capabilities: leverage secure AI infrastructure; foster a culture that embraces AI technology; ensure AI is applied responsibly; and innovate.
For the first strategic goal, the State Department will integrate AI technologies into a secure and sustainable AI-enabling infrastructure to establish and scale a variety of AI applications.
Specific objectives under this goal are enabling AI technology integration, fully utilizing infrastructure for AI adoption at department scale and modernizing acquisition of AI tools.
To advance the acquisition modernization objective, the department’s information technology procurement authorities will work with other government officials to streamline the approval and procurement processes for AI tools, such as looking at the IT procurement pipeline to identify efficiencies and maintain safeguards included in approval mechanisms such as the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program and Authorization to Operate process.
“Prior to their acquisition, AI technologies will be evaluated against security protocols and risk assessment processes. The Department’s procurement and open-source approval processes will be further developed to enable flexibility and streamlined deployment of AI,” the strategy states.
Register here to attend the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 21 and hear federal leaders and industry experts discuss the latest developments in the field.