The U.S. National Security Memorandum on AI: Leading Experts Weigh In

Bill Drexel, Fellow, Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security:

The National Security Memorandum solidifies the government’s intentions to promote domestic compute capacity, government adoption of AI tools, and cybersecurity and counterintelligence to keep the U.S. private sector’s AI development safe from adversaries that would seek to siphon IP and AI models. All of these measures are welcome and critical to maintaining the U.S. edge over China, especially in frontier model development. But the Memorandum also replicates one of the major issues that plagues the United States’ approach to AI internationally: a tendency to talk a great deal about norms, standards, agreements, and risks rather than focusing on actually building out AI ecosystems in other countries, especially in the Global South. China, meanwhile, is trying to bill itself as the leader of global AI growth for developing economies, with a clear emphasis on practically building skills, infrastructure, and systems on the ground in often-overlooked places. This approach could ultimately win China more influence in norms and standard-setting for AI. Finally, the Memorandum is heavily focused on boosting resource-intensive frontier model development, despite the uncertain returns of that approach for defense, which some have criticized as having more to do with tech hype than substance. Indeed, many of the most transformative uses of AI for defense to date are largely unrelated to frontier models, with a long runway ahead for further progress that the Memorandum does little to support. More balance between frontier development and other AI tools for national security would be very welcome.

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