The Office of Management and Budget last week released the expanded roster of Federal agency chief AI officers (CAIO) covering the 24 largest agencies in government, along with the AI chiefs at 31 smaller agencies.
OMB’s action tracks with the Biden administration’s executive order on artificial intelligence (AI) released in October 2023 that tasked agencies with naming CAIOs to oversee the government’s use of the emerging technology, and follows OMB’s official guidance to agencies that gave them until the end of May to fill the CAIO position.
According to OMB’s March 2024 guidance, each CAIO will have the responsibility to advise agency leadership on AI, coordinate and track the agency’s AI activities, advance the use of AI in the agency’s mission, and oversee the management of AI risks.
OMB spelled out more than a dozen explicit responsibilities of the CAIOs at each agency. Specifically, the AI lead is responsible for actions like advising on the resourcing requirements and workforce skillsets necessary for applying AI to the agency’s mission, and advocating within their agency and to the public on the opportunities and benefits of AI.
The guidance also calls for agencies to establish internal mechanisms for coordinating the efforts of the many existing officials responsible for issues related to AI. As part of this, large agencies are required to establish AI Governance Boards – chaired by the deputy secretary and vice-chaired by the CAIO.
The governance boards will be required to meet no less than quarterly, OMB said, and must be made up of senior officials responsible for IT, cybersecurity, data, procurement, customer experience, among others.
The CAIOs at the 24 CFO Act agencies are:
- Christopher Alvares, Department of Agriculture;
- Brian Epley, Department of Commerce;
- Radha Plumb, Department of Defense;
- Gary Stevens, Department of Education;
- Helena Fu, Department of Energy;
- Micky Tripathi (Acting), Department of Health and Human Services;
- Eric Hysen, Department of Homeland Security;
- Vinay Singh, Department of Housing and Urban Development;
- Jonathan Mayer, Department of Justice;
- Mangala Kuppa, Department of Labor;
- Matthew Graviss, Department of State;
- Joan Mooney, Department of the Interior;
- Vinn White (Acting), Department of Transportation;
- Todd Conklin, Department of Treasury;
- Charles Worthington, Department of Veterans Affairs;
- Vaughn Noga, Environmental Protection Agency;
- Zach Whitman, General Services Administration;
- Dave Salvagnini, NASA;
- Scott Flanders, Nuclear Regulatory Commission;
- Guy Cavallo (Acting), Office of Personnel Management;
- Stephen Kucharski, Small Business Administration;
- Brian Peltier, Social Security Administration;
- Jason Gray (Acting), U.S. Agency for International Development; and
- Dorothy Aronson, National Science Foundation.
OMB also announced that Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana will serve as the chair of the CAIO Council and Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer for Policy Austin Bonner will serve as the council’s vice chair.
Since December, OMB and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy have regularly convened the CAIOs in the new CAIO Council to coordinate their efforts across the Federal government and to prepare for implementation of OMB’s guidance.
Smaller agencies that also provided OMB with the names of their CAIOs include the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; the Federal Trade Commission; the National Archives and Records Administration; and the Securities and Exchange Commission, among others.
On Friday, Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., introduced a House companion bill to Sen. Peters, D-Mich., AI Leadership to Enable Accountable Deployment (AI LEAD) Act which seeks to codify into law the position of the CAIO at every Federal agency.
