A new bipartisan bill filed by senators on Dec. 19 is calling for the Department of Commerce to establish an AI Safety Review Office, led by a White House-nominated under secretary of Commerce for AI safety.
The bipartisan Preserving American Dominance in AI Act would require the new office to work with industry to defend frontier AI models against misuse by foreign adversaries looking to exploit the technology for nefarious purposes.
The bill was introduced by Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Jack Reed, D-R.I., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Angus King, I-Maine, and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and crafted based on the group’s previously released framework.
The new office’s mission would be to prioritize safeguarding U.S. national security against extreme risks – chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and cyber threats – posed by frontier models, the most advanced AI models that are still yet to be developed.
“AI has the potential to dramatically improve and transform our way of life, but it also comes with enormous risks to national security. We must safeguard this advanced technology from terrorists and adversaries looking to cause widespread harm,” Sen. Romney said. “My colleagues and I have spent the last several months turning our framework into bipartisan legislation that would preserve America’s competitive edge in AI while also ensuring the most advanced models do not pose unchecked chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or cyber risks.”
He continued, “It is my hope that our legislation will serve as a starting point for discussion on what actions Congress and the incoming administration should take on AI-enabled extreme risks – without hampering American innovation.”
The lawmakers said their legislation would create the new office under Commerce which would be responsible for working with frontier Al companies, large datacenters, and infrastructure-as-a-service providers to prevent exploitation of these industries by adversaries, and to ensure pre-deployment evaluations for the most advanced frontier Al models.
The bill says the pre-deployment evaluations would be similar to Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States’ (CIFUS) evaluations – an interagency committee that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in the U.S. economy.
The senators said the AI Safety Review Office would work closely with Commerce’s AI Safety Institute, whose mission is to help define and advance the science of AI safety.
