The White House issued its AI Action Plan this week, which includes a recommendation to establish an “AI global alliance” with key allies to ensure adversaries do not get their hands on technologies that the United States is looking to impose export controls on.
That recommendation is included in the third pillar of the plan, which focuses on leading in international AI diplomacy and security.
“To succeed in the global AI competition, America must do more than promote AI within its own borders. The United States must also drive adoption of American AI systems, computing hardware, and standards throughout the world,” the plan says.
“America currently is the global leader on data center construction, computing hardware performance, and models. It is imperative that the United States leverage this advantage into an enduring global alliance, while preventing our adversaries from free-riding on our innovation and investment,” it adds.
In order to establish an enduring global alliance, the White House said the United States must export its full AI technology stack – including hardware, models, software, applications, and standards – “to all countries willing to join America’s AI alliance.”
The third pillar lays the groundwork for a new AI global alliance, akin to NATO for cybersecurity and digital infrastructure.
According to the White House, the alliance would “align incentives and policy levers across government to induce key allies to adopt complementary AI protection systems and export controls across the supply chain.”
The AI Action Plan tasks the Department of State, in coordination with the departments of Commerce, Defense, and Energy, to develop a technology diplomacy strategic plan for the AI global alliance.
“This plan should aim to ensure that American allies do not supply adversaries with technologies on which the U.S. is seeking to impose export controls,” the AI Action Plan says.
Additionally, the White House wants to ensure that the U.S. government is at the forefront of evaluating national security risks in AI models.
“Because America currently leads on AI capabilities, the risks present in American frontier models are likely to be a preview for what foreign adversaries will possess in the near future,” the White House says. “Understanding the nature of these risks as they emerge is vital for national defense and homeland security.”
The AI Action Plan directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), in collaboration with national security agencies, to “evaluate and assess potential security vulnerabilities and malign foreign influence arising from the use of adversaries’ AI systems in critical infrastructure and elsewhere in the American economy, including the possibility of backdoors and other malicious behavior.”
The White House said these evaluations should review the capabilities of both U.S. and adversary AI systems, the extent to which foreign AI systems are being adopted, and the state of international AI competition.