Defense Department needs widespread AI acquisition guidance, government report says

Center for A.I. Safety Director Dan Hendrycks explains concerns about how the rapid growth of artificial intelligence could impact society. A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to the Senate Committee on Armed Services found that the Department of Defense needs to issue department-wide artificial intelligence acquisitions guidance. The 44-page-long report shared last month found that the department has begun to pursue increasingly advanced AI capabilities. The office said the department has "historically struggled to acquire weapon systems software" and noted AI acquisitions pose "additional challenges." The GAO analyzed information provided by 13 companies in the private sector regarding how they successfully acquire AI capabilities to determine key factors. The companies considered multiple factors when acquiring such capabilities, including understanding the need and if AI is appropriate, making a business case for AI, tailoring a contracting approach to protect access to data and systems, testing and evaluating proposed solutions and forecasting fur AI capabilities that may be valuable.