U.S. agencies publish plans to comply with White House AI memo
Federal agencies across the government have posted their plans to comply with an Office of Management and Budget memo on artificial intelligence governance, providing a window into what risk management and reporting practices will look like in the executive branch.
The compliance plans, which were due 180 days following the finalization of OMB’s M-24-10 memo, outline steps each covered agency plans to take when it comes to updating their internal policies, collecting information for their AI use case inventories, removing barriers to responsible use of AI tools, and determining whether a use is rights- or safety-impacting, among other things.
Each agency was required by Tuesday to post their initial compliance plan publicly on their website or publish a determination that the agency doesn’t use or anticipate using any AI covered by the memo. Those plans will be updated every two years until 2036.
When asked for comment on the plans and how many agencies met the deadline, a spokesperson for OMB referred FedScoop to the postings on agency websites and didn’t comment further.
An initial FedScoop search identified 22 compliance plans on agency websites.
While agency use case inventories for AI are required to be available at a specific URL, the instructions aren’t specific for compliance plans. Depending on the agency, some plans are located on the inventory page while others are located on landing pages for policies or the offices of the chief information or AI officer.
FedScoop reached out to all Chief Financial Officer Act agencies for which it couldn’t immediately find a published plan. Of those agencies, the Department of Justice, the Department of Education and the Social Security Administration said Wednesday that their plans would be posted soon. The Small Business Administration told FedScoop on Thursday that it has an implementation plan that will be posted imminently.
The agencies for which plans were readily available were:
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Defense
- Department of Energy
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Department of the Interior
- Department of Labor
- Department of State
- Department of Transportation
- Department of the Treasury
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- Environmental Protection Administration
- General Services Administration
- NASA
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission
- Office of Personnel Management
- Social Security Administration
- U.S. Agency for International Development
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- U.S. Trade and Development Agency
- Securities and Exchange Commission
- Export-Import Bank of the U.S.
The plans come as several other deadlines are approaching under the AI memo.
By Oct. 15, agencies have to submit extension requests for rights- and safety-impacting uses, as defined under the memo, if they can’t feasibly meet the minimum risk management practices by the Dec. 1 deadline. Agencies must also publish their updated annual AI use case inventories by Dec. 16, per finalized guidance released by the White House.
Editor’s note: This story was updated Sept. 26, 2024, to include a response from the SBA and a link to the SSA’s inventory, which was posted online after publication.
