The federal government is moving to utilize the capabilities of artificial intelligence to further secure supply chains, including by improving its screening of imports.
“Our homeland security has converged with our broader national security,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in an April 21 speech. “Nation states like the People’s Republic of China and Russia upend our rules-based international order and threaten our security at home, whether through cyberattacks, abuse of our trade and travel systems, or through disinformation campaigns that seek to undermine our democratic institutions.” This threat environment “could change even more dramatically” he said, “as AI grips our imaginations and accelerates into our lives in uncharted and basically unmanaged fashion.”
While DHS will therefore act to defend against the “malicious use” of AI, it will also look to use this transformational technology responsibly to help secure the homeland. To that end the department will establish an Artificial Intelligence Task Force that will drive specific applications of AI to advance its homeland security missions.
This will include integrating AI into efforts to enhance the integrity of supply chains and the broader trade environment. For example, DHS will seek to deploy AI to more ably screen cargo, identify the importation of goods produced with forced labor, and manage risk. It will also explore using AI to better detect fentanyl shipments, identify and interdict the flow of precursor chemicals around the world, and target for disruption key nodes in the criminal networks.
The task force is expected to submit a concept of operations and milestones for progress within 60 days and to then report regularly on its work.
In a separate but related initiative, Mayorkas directed a 90-day assessment of the threats China poses to the U.S. “now and into the future.” DHS offices and agencies (including U.S. Customs and Border Protection) will assess the current threats and challenges China poses to their missions, look ahead to how those threats may evolve, assess department capabilities to address these threats, and identify actions they can take now to reduce risk.
This effort will focus on six priority areas, including mitigating China’s “malign economic influence by protecting against supply chain exploitation, including by assessing risk from foreign acquisitions, providing best practices to understand and reduce risks within the supply chain, resolving acute supply chain disruptions, and by ensuring that supply chains are free from forced labor.”
Within 45 days of the initiative’s conclusion a report will be due summarizing its findings and identifying “enduring enhancements” to counter threats.
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