Artificial Intelligence in the Intelligence Community: Money is Not Enough

Congress wants to pour hundreds of billions (yes with a B) of dollars into the federal government to increase the nation's competitiveness in emerging technology and, in particular, to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that are vital to protecting our national security. The bipartisan support shown for the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) – the bill that provides these funds – is a noteworthy and important step in ensuring the United States is resilient and competitive in the 21st century. And that kind of money is nothing to sneeze at. But can the federal government manage to spend it? Thanks to China's aggressive, whole-of-nation approach to emerging technology and the ubiquity of AI technologies that adversaries big and small are now poised to exploit, there is a sudden urgency around AI and national security.