Recent revelations about rogue AI agents and employees blowing the whistle on seemingly irresponsible AI research and development at technology firms have led many across government and private industry to call for a slowdown in AI advancement while regulations and other guardrails are put in place.
But is that the right decision?
While recent AI news has been unsettling, federal legislation and industry-wide slowdowns could have unintended consequences, including ceding AI leadership to other nations. With our pacing adversaries already claiming to be “Winning the AI war,” can our nation afford to slow AI development and adoption? And would a slowdown even be effective?
History has shown that technological advancement will continue regardless of whether the government puts regulations and guardrails in place. Development will simply shift to other countries, or from the established AI operators to smaller, more agile developers.
This is why the government and its industry partners should focus less on slowing AI development and more on a larger, arguably harder AI challenge: ensuring the accuracy, security, and validity of the data AI systems rely on.
Trusted Data is Essential for Operationalizing AI
AI is becoming mission-critical to today’s government agencies and military organizations. But what happens if they can’t trust the data AI systems are analyzing to generate actionable insights?
As AI moves from “early days” into full operational environments, the security question becomes bigger than who or what gets access. What data should an AI system be allowed to see? Can it trust that data? Where can that data move? What can the AI do with it once it has access?
These questions become even more consequential as AI takes on larger, more mission-critical roles in government and national security organizations.
Ultimately, governmental AI systems and capabilities will be only as good as the data they’re trained on and the data they analyze to make decisions. Protecting that data and keeping it secure in transit is essential to mission success.
That is why companies like Everfox are delivering secure data pipelines for government AI implementations. These solutions enable thorough inspection of data as it moves across and between domains to a decision-support system, helping the government trust the data AI analyzes and uses.
Ultimately, AI development and adoption in the U.S. is unlikely to slow, even if the government puts guardrails in place. If it did slow, AI development and advancement would likely shift to our nation’s adversaries, giving them a future tactical edge. Instead of trying to slow AI down, the government should focus on securing the data that drives it.
Our AI advantage will ultimately depend on more than the sophistication or the underlying capabilities of the models. It will depend on whether we can get trusted data to the right people and systems without being burdened by potential exploits or governance vulnerabilities.
The AI race will not slow down anytime soon. We need to accelerate our ability to secure the data powering it.