Chief AI officers for every US government agency.

The Biden administration is ordering that every federal agency appoint a "chief AI officer" to look over the responsible use of artificial intelligence in their operations and day to day work.

What's going on here?

The White House is cracking the AI governance whip across all federal agencies.

What does this mean?

Every single US government agency now needs to designate a senior official as their chief AI officer within the next 60 days. These AI chiefs will basically act as watchdogs, monitoring how their agencies use AI and ensuring it doesn't trample on citizen safety or civil rights.

Their main responsibilities? Conducting risk assessments on all agency AI applications, enforcing compliance with new federal AI standards, and serving as the public-facing authority on their agency's AI efforts. That means these AI officers will be the one giving you advance notice about impactful AI deployments and talking to the public about opt-outs for automated decision-making systems.

The US federal government will also hire 100 AI professionals i.e. people who know the tech and can work with it to build its AI talent roaster.

Why should I care?

Having a key officer for each agency, instead of scrambling all around makes sense. These chief AI officers will have serious authority to rein in reckless government uses of AI that could automate bias, erode due process, or jeopardise public safety. At the same time, their mandate is also to actively advance American AI capabilities and leadership.

The question is how effective these officers would be i.e will they do the real work or just talk around like politicians do. Ideally, they will act as a champion of tech and people both.