President Biden is set to issue AI national security memo; ARPA-H wants information on autonomous AI systems for health care

President Joe Biden will issue a memo and framework on the use of AI in the context of national security Thursday, with the aim of providing steps for U.S. leadership and guardrails for governance of the technology. Under the memo, agencies will be directed to access “the most powerful AI systems and put them to use,” senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the memo ahead of its release said. The memo will also bolster the role of the AI Safety Institute and provide direction to agencies for AI use for national security.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, known as ARPA-H, is seeking information about how autonomous artificial intelligence systems, known as agentic AI, might be used in the health care space. A recent request for information posted by the Department of Health and Human Services agency specifically asks for information on implementations of agentic AI, how multiple agentic AI systems work together, scalability, risks, and how autonomy is decided, among other things.

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