On January 17, 2024, CSET Researchers submitted a response to proposed rules from the Bureau of Industry and Security at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In the submission, CSET recommends that Commerce not implement controls on U.S. companies providing IaaS to Chinese entities, among other recommendations.

Recent government directives, international conferences, and media headlines reflect growing concern that artificial intelligence could exacerbate biological threats. When it comes to biorisk, AI tools are cited as enablers that lower information barriers, enhance novel biothreat design, or otherwise increase a malicious actor’s capabilities. In this explainer, CSET Biorisk Research Fellow Steph Batalis summarizes the state of the biorisk landscape with and without AI.

This data brief analyzes over 200,000 U.S. government grants awarded to industry and academic recipients for artificial intelligence research between January 2017 and May 2023. The authors find that while the majority of federal grants are awarded to academic recipients, industry played an outsized role in U.S. government grant funding of AI research. Moreover, departments within the U.S. Department of Defense appear to prioritize funding industry and AI research relative to other funding agencies.

AI has the potential to revolutionize approaches to climate change research. Using CSET's Map of Science, this data brief maps the production of research publications at the intersection of AI and climate change to better understand how AI methods are being applied to climate change-related research.

Data Snapshots are informative descriptions and quick analyses that dig into CSET’s unique data resources. This is the second installment of a two-part series of data snapshots that explores export control data from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), namely the 2021 and 2022 yearly reports for trade with China and Hong Kong.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the world’s most pressing global health threats. Basic research is the first step towards identifying solutions. This brief examines the AMR research landscape since 2000, finding that the amount of research is increasing and that the U.S. is a leading publisher, but also that novel solutions like phages and synthetic antimicrobial production are a small portion of that research.

Data Snapshots are informative descriptions and quick analyses that dig into CSET’s unique data resources. This is the first installment of a two-part series of data snapshots that explores export control data from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), namely the 2021 and 2022 yearly reports for trade with China and Hong Kong.

How can policymakers credibly reveal and assess intentions in the field of artificial intelligence? Policymakers can send credible signals of their intent by making pledges or committing to undertaking certain actions for which they will pay a price—political, reputational, or monetary—if they back down or fail to make good on their initial promise or threat. Talk is cheap, but inadvertent escalation is costly to all sides.

CSET submitted the following comment in response to a Request for Information (RFI) from the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy about potential changes to the Policies for Federal and Institutional Oversight of Life Sciences Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC) and Recommended Policy Guidance for Departmental Development of Review Mechanisms for Potential Pandemic Pathogen Care and Oversight (P3CO).

This explainer overviews techniques to produce smaller and more efficient language models that require fewer resources to develop and operate. Importantly, information on how to leverage these techniques, and many of the subsequent small models, are openly available online for anyone to use. The combination of both small (i.e., easy to use) and open (i.e., easy to access) could have significant implications for artificial intelligence development.