- The Biden administration is beefing up AI staffing across the government.
- All federal agencies are now required to hire a chief AI specialist, Kamala Harris announced.
- Agencies must prove their AI tools do not harm the public or stop using AI.
Do you want to work for the federal government? Consider becoming an AI specialist.
The Biden administration announced Thursday that it will boost AI staffing across all federal agencies, with a goal of hiring 100 AI professionals by summer.
And all federal agencies must hire a chief AI specialist to oversee the ethical and transparent use of AI, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said in its statement.
“This is about ensuring that AI is used responsibly, recognizing that we must have senior leaders within our government who are specifically responsible for overseeing the adoption and use of AI,” he said. Vice President Kamala Harris said during a press conference.
In addition to hiring AI agents, agencies should also establish AI governance councils, like those that already exist within the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development and the State Department, according to the OMB.
New AI roles offer employees major benefits, including incentives of up to 25% of their base salary (plus an extra multiplied by the years in the service contract) for relocation, recruitment and retention , according to a memo from the US Office of Personnel Management.
The office also encourages agencies to offer flexible work schedules and remote work options to those in critical AI roles.
Open positions listed on a government job site show base salaries topping $143,000 for some IT specialists working in AI.
Under the new order, agencies must also prove that their use of AI does not harm the public, and if they cannot, they must immediately stop using AI tools.
Harris explained that, for example, “if the Veterans Administration wants to use AI in VA hospitals to help doctors diagnose patients, it will first have to demonstrate that AI does not produce racist diagnoses . »
The new policy also establishes a number of guidelines for federal agencies to adopt by the end of the year, including publishing an annual inventory of their use of AI, publishing any code of Government-owned AI they use and the guarantee that a human oversees everything. AI tools.
Expanding the government’s AI workforce is the latest part of Biden’s AI plan, which began with an executive order in October establishing transparency policies around the hot technology.
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