On October 17, 2023, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an update to last year’s export controls on advanced computing, supercomputing and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. This blog post provides an overview of the updated advanced computing controls, analyzes more than 100 relevant chips, and discusses the licensing policies for the expanded chip restrictions and the increased country scope.

On October 30, 2023, the Biden administration released the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This blog contemplates a potential lack of balance in the policy discussions between the restrictions that come with governance and the promise of opportunity unleashed by innovation. Is it possible to apply AI standards, governance, safeguards and protections in a manner that stimulates innovation, competitiveness and global leadership for the United States in AI?

Discover how the global landscape of STEM graduates is shifting, potentially reshaping the future of innovation and education worldwide. This blog post analyzes recent education data from the countries with the most graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. For each of the top eleven countries by number of STEM graduates, we present the total number of STEM graduates as well as STEM graduates as a percentage of total graduates in 2020.

On October 30, 2023, the Biden administration released its long-awaited Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. CSET has broken down the EO, focusing on specific government deliverables. Our EO Provision and Timeline tracker lists which agencies are responsible for actioning EO provisions and their deadlines.

On September 19, 2023, one of us had the opportunity to testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight, chaired by Senator Maggie Hassan. Members of the subcommittee asked for an actionable plan for the U.S. government (USG) to address concerns about emerging technologies, like AI, synthetic biology and genetic engineering, and quantum technologies. This blog post endeavors to summarize near term policy recommendations based on CSET research as well as our best guesses about what is needed to address emerging concerns about these technologies.

The August 9 Executive Order aims to restrict certain U.S. investments in key technology areas. In a previous post, we proposed an end-user approach to crafting an AI investment prohibition. In this follow-on post, we rely on existing and hypothetical transactions to test scenarios where U.S. investments in China’s AI ecosystem would or would not be covered under the proposed program, and highlight outstanding challenges.

On September 8, 2023, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) released their Bipartisan Framework on AI Legislation. The framework includes many ideas and recommendations that CSET research has highlighted over the past four years. This blog post highlights some of the most relevant reports and CSET’s perspective on the framework’s elements.

Recent announcements from both Pentagon and Congressional leaders offer significant opportunity for rapidly delivering autonomous systems technology at-scale for U.S. Warfighters well into the future. Dr. Jaret Riddick, CSET Senior Fellow and former Principal Director for Autonomy in USD(R&E) offers his perspective on DOD’s Replicator Initiative and recent legislative proposals about DOD autonomy.

Universities can build more inclusive computer science programs by addressing the reasons that students may be deterred from pursuing the field. This blog post explores some of those reasons, features of CS education that cause them, and provides recommendations on how to design learning experiences that are safer and more exploratory for everyone.

On August 9, 2023 the Biden administration announced an executive order to restrict certain U.S. investments in China’s key technology sectors, including artificial intelligence. This blog post proposes implementing investment restrictions related to AI for national security using a list-based end-user approach that builds upon existing list-based tools.