DHS seeks 50 artificial intelligence experts for new AI Corps
The Department of Homeland Security is launching a “hiring sprint” to build a team of 50 artificial intelligence experts for its new “AI Corps.”
“Now is the time for tech experts to make a real difference for our country and join the federal government,” the agency’s Chief Information Officer Eric Hysen said in a news release announcing the sprint Tuesday.
The AI Corps is modeled after the U.S. Digital Service and housed within DHS’s Office of the CIO. Its experts will support the use of the technology across the agency, the release said, such as “efforts to counter fentanyl, combat child sexual exploitation and abuse, deliver immigration services, secure travel, fortify our critical infrastructure, and enhance our cybersecurity.”
The announcement comes as federal agencies across the government have been working to implement the budding technology and develop their own guardrails for things like generative AI. President Joe Biden’s AI executive order also put an emphasis on the technology, including efforts to hire AI talent in the federal government.
The Office of Personnel Management, for example, announced flexible hiring authorities for AI-related positions late last year in an effort to promote hiring across the government. In its release, DHS said it’s using those authorities to “streamline and expedite the federal hiring process to ensure qualified candidates receive offers as quickly as possible.”
“As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful and more accessible than ever before, government needs the support and expertise of our country’s foremost AI experts to help ensure our continued ability to harness this technology responsibly, safeguard against its malicious use, and advance our critical homeland security mission,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in the release.
