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\$1M actually available
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Good(3)Good quality. Reputable source with community review or editorial standards, but less rigorous than peer-reviewed venues.
Rating inherited from publication venue: VentureBeat
Relevant to understanding the practical challenges facing the US AI Safety Institute in its early stages, particularly the gap between its mandated scope and available resources during the Biden-to-Trump transition period.
Metadata
Importance: 42/100news articlenews
Summary
Reports on the Biden administration's appointments to lead the AI Safety Institute (AISI) at NIST, while highlighting concerns about limited available funding (~$1M) for the institute's operations. The piece covers the tension between political momentum for AI safety governance and practical resource constraints facing the newly established body.
Key Points
- •Biden administration made leadership appointments to the US AI Safety Institute housed within NIST
- •Only approximately $1M in funding was reportedly available despite the institute's broad mandate
- •Funding uncertainty raised questions about AISI's ability to fulfill its AI safety evaluation mission
- •Appointments signal continued political commitment to AI safety infrastructure even amid resource gaps
- •NIST funding constraints could limit the institute's capacity for model evaluations and safety research
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| US Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy AI | Policy | 91.0 |
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[Sharon Goldman](https://venturebeat.com/author/sharongoldman)
February 7, 2024
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Today the Biden administration [named Elizabeth Kelly](https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/biden-administration-names-director-new-ai-safety-institute-107016180), a top White House aide who had been a "driving force" behind the President's [AI Executive Order](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/10/30/executive-order-on-the-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-development-and-use-of-artificial-intelligence/) (EO), as the director of the new US [AI Safety Institute](https://www.nist.gov/artificial-intelligence/artificial-intelligence-safety-institute) (USAISI) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In addition, Elham Tabassi was appointed as chief technology officer.
NIST, which is part of the US Department of Commerce, released an highly-anticipated [AI risk management framework](https://venturebeat.com/ai/nist-releases-new-ai-risk-management-framework-for-trustworthy-ai/) in January 2023 and was given a great deal of [responsibility](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/12/21/2023-28232/request-for-information-rfi-related-to-nists-assignments-under-sections-41-45-and-11-of-the#:~:text=Among%20other%20things%2C%20the%20E.O.,%2C%20secure%2C%20and%20trustworthy%20systems.) in the White House's AI EO to "undertake an initiative for evaluating and auditing capabilities relating to Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies and to develop a variety of guidelines, including for conducting AI red-teaming tests to enable deployment of safe, secure, and trustworthy systems."
However, the leadership appointments appeared to be the first major announcement about the USAISI since it [was established](https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2023/11/direction-president-biden-department-commerce-establish-us-artificial) in November 2023 to "support the responsibilities assigned to the Department of Commerce" under the AI Executive Order. Since then, there have been few details disclosed about how the institute would work and where its funding would come from — especially since NIST itself, with [reportedly](https://www.nextgov.com/artificial-intelligence/2024/01/can-nist-get-it-all-done/393387/) a staff of about 3,400 and an annual budget of just over $1.6 billion — is known to be underfunded.
## Source of NIST funding for AI safety is unclear
A bipartisan group of senators [asked](https://www.meritalk.com/articles/senators-seeking-10m-for-nist-ai-institute/) the Senate Appropriations Committee in January for $10 million of funding to help establish the U.S.
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