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.

CSET submitted the following comment in response to a Request for Comment (RFC) from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) about a draft memorandum providing guidance to government agencies regarding the appointment of Chief AI Officers, Risk Management for AI, and other processes following the October 30, 2023 Executive Order on AI.

Standards enable good governance practices by establishing consistent measurement and norms for interoperability, but creating standards for AI is a challenging task. The Center for Security and Emerging Technology and the Center for a New American Security hosted a series of workshops in the fall of 2022 to examine standards development in the areas of finance, worker safety, cybersecurity, sustainable buildings, and medical devices in order to apply the lessons learned in these domains to AI. This workshop report summarizes our findings and recommendations.

Demand for talent is one of the core elements of technological competition between the United States and China. In this issue brief, we explore demand signals in China’s domestic AI workforce in two ways: geographically and within the defense and surveillance sectors. Our exploration of job postings from Spring 2021 finds that more than three-quarters of all AI job postings are concentrated in just three regions: the Yangtze River Delta region, the Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.

Translation Snapshots are short posts that highlight related translations produced by CSET’s in-house translation team. Each snapshot identifies relevant translations, provides short summaries, and links to the full translations. Check back regularly for additional Translation Snapshots highlighting our work.

Read our translation of an announcement by a Chinese Communist Party-run association for scientists that names 28 questions as China’s outstanding S&T issues and challenges of 2023.

Read our translation of a Chinese government policy for the near-term development of computing power.

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.

Read our translation of a Beijing municipal government plan identifies 20 “future industries” that Beijing is targeting with favorable industrial policies.

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.