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Insights & Reports
By
Technology Reporter, Nextgov/FCW
The Department of Justice announced on Thursday the formation of an artificial intelligence task force designed to safeguard the department against malicious AI actors.
The new task force, known as the Super Intelligence Task Force — or DOJ-SITF — will be co-chaired by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and Associate Deputy Attorney General Stephen Weiss.
“The DOJ-SITF will ensure that America’s leadership in SI is not compromised by the misuse of SI by foreign state and state-sponsored actors, transnational criminal organizations, and individual or corporate actors engaged in fraud or other unlawful conduct,” Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in an Oct. 13 memo.
“The DOJ-SITF will also take affirmative measures, as appropriate, to promote American SI dominance,” he said.
President Donald Trumpsigned an executive order in late September instructing agencies to refer to artificial intelligence as “super intelligence,” which he called more accurate. Super intelligence already had an established definition — “any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest,” per philosopher Nick Bostrom — that is separate from the meaning of artificial intelligence.
The DOJ previously established an AI Litigation Task Force in January under former Attorney General Pam Bondi. Blanche said the new task force will incorporate the work of the AI Litigation Task Force and coordinate the DOJ’s affirmative civil litigation as it relates to AI.
The task force will also organize the department’s criminal and civil law enforcement efforts involving AI, recommend enforcement priorities to prevent the misuse of AI and develop guidance on the prosecution of unlawful AI-related conduct.
Blanche said the DOJ-SITF will also serve as the department’s main point of contact with the Super Intelligence Force that Trump announced last month. That task force, led by National Intelligence Director Jay Clayton, coordinates the government’s engagement with various organizations and AI companies.
“The SI Task Force at the Department of Justice will facilitate our partnership with SI Force Chair Jay Clayton as we ensure critical SI technologies serve the American people and are not manipulated by bad actors at home or abroad,” Blanche said in a statement.
“The Department of Justice will continue identifying and prosecuting individuals whose use of SI violates the law, including by maliciously targeting American taxpayers, critical U.S. infrastructure, or other aspects of our national security,” he added.
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