Towards Responsible Innovation: US Initiatives in AI Safety and Cybersecurity

Conclusion

As the NSS and NCS note, the 2020s are a decisive decade, and actions taken now will shape the contours of cyberspace, digital technologies, and the digital economy for the future. As it implements this strategy, the Department of State will work with Congress and interagency partners to evaluate current cyber authorities and to amend or create authorities as needed for the Department to keep pace with evolving cyber and digital technologies.

Building innovative, secure, and rights-respecting digital ecosystems is a process that will extend beyond the timespan of this strategy, and likely to be characterized by progress, pauses, and reversals. There will be, however, some early signposts that will indicate the United States, allies, and partners are moving forward.

First, the United States, allies, and partners, along with the private sector and civil society, will build on the early successes of the G7-Hiroshima Code of Conduct, the Biden-Harris Executive Order on AI, and the UK AI Safety Summit. We will reach consensus on guiding principles that foster innovation and the development of responsible AI as well as make significant investments to build the knowledge and infrastructure necessary to measure, evaluate, and verify advanced AI systems, including through the launch of the U.S. AI Safety Institute. We will advance global norms on the responsible and rights-respecting use of AI-enabled technologies.

Second, the United States allies, and partners, along with the private sector, will develop common understandings and shared principles for security and trustworthiness in subsea cable, cloud services, and data centers and will increase support for extending access to cloud services to emerging economies.

Third, the United States, allies, and partners will succeed in pushing forward more action-oriented discussions at the UN on international security issues in cyberspace. These discussions will focus on how member states can work together to implement critical elements of the framework for responsible state behavior and on building all states’ capacity to manage cyber-related threats.

Fourth, the Department of State will draw on the Cyberspace, Digital Connectivity, and Related Technologies Fund to provide rapid incident response and cyber aid quickly and effectively, as well as longer-term capacity and resilience building. These strategic investments will not only strengthen the role of the United States as a digital partner, but also generate larger, self-sustaining investments by host countries in their own cybersecurity and digital transformation.

oving forward, the United States will strive for a future in which cyberspace and digital technologies are used to advance economic prosperity and inclusion, enhance security, promote and protect human rights and democracy, and address transnational challenges. The Department of State will build and extend digital solidarity to partners across the globe. The United States recognizes the need to work together to align approaches to data and digital governance and to promote the research, development, and deployment of critical and emerging technologies. The United States seeks to be the partner of choice in improving cybersecurity, building resilience, responding to, and recovering from malicious cyber activity. Digital solidarity aims to connect people and information like never before, fostering a more inclusive, secure, prosperous, rights-respecting, safe, and equitable world.

Notes

[1] The idea of digital solidarity was first promoted by Pablo Chavez, “Toward Digital Solidarity,” Lawfare, June 28, 2022, https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/toward-digital-solidarity [back to 1]

[2] Fast Track Action Subcommittee on Critical and Emerging Technologies, Critical and Emerging Technologies Update, National Science and Technology Council, February 2024, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Critical-and-Emerging-Technologies-List-2024-Update.pdf [back to 2]

[3] Anna Fleck, “Cybercrime Expected To Skyrocket in Coming Years,” Statista, February 22,2024, https://www.statista.com/chart/28878/expected-cost-of-cybercrime-until-2027/ [back to 3]

[4] ITU, The Gender Digital Divide,  https://www.itu.int/itu-d/reports/statistics/2023/10/10/ff23-the-gender-digital-divide/ [back to 4]

[5] UN, Secretary General, Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security, July 2015, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/799853?ln=en&v=pdf [back to 5]