The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unveiled the formation of a high-profile advisory board on Friday. The board, composed of top executives from leading technology companies, will provide recommendations to the government on managing and securing AI technologies within essential service sectors.

The DHS blue-ribbon board consists of industry titans such as the CEOs of OpenAI, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Nvidia, and other major corporations across a range of critical industries. The board's mandate is to create "actionable recommendations" for sectors like transportation, energy, internet service providers, and more. These recommendations aim to "prevent and prepare for AI-related disruptions to critical services that impact national or economic security, public health, or safety."

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated, "It is not a board that will be focused on theory, but rather practical solutions for the implementation of AI in our nation's daily life."

The 22-member board includes OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and several other notable figures from the tech industry. The board also features executives from Delta Air Lines, Occidental Petroleum, and Northrop Grumman, as well as political leaders like Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell.

The inaugural meeting of the board is scheduled for the upcoming month, with plans for quarterly meetings thereafter. This initiative comes in the wake of DHS's 2024 threat assessment, which cautioned that AI-assisted tools could lead to more sophisticated and large-scale cyber-attacks targeting U.S. infrastructure. Furthermore, the assessment included concerns over countries like China developing AI technologies that could potentially compromise U.S. cyber defenses, including AI programs that facilitate malicious activities such as malware attacks.

Reuters Article