Kilito Chan
- The Biden Administration is beefing up AI staff across the government.
- All federal agencies are now required to hire a chief AI specialist, Kamala Harris announced.
- Agencies must prove their AI tools don't harm the public, or stop using AI.
Want to work for the federal government? Consider becoming an AI specialist.
The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it will be beefing up AI staff across all federal agencies, aiming to hire 100 AI professionals by the summer.
And, all federal agencies must hire a chief AI specialist to oversee the ethical and transparent use of AI, the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said in its announcement.
"This is to make sure that AI is used responsibly, understanding that we must have senior leaders across our government who are specifically tasked with overseeing AI adoption and use," Vice President Kamala Harris said at a press conference.
In addition to hiring AI officers, the agencies must also set up AI Governance Boards, like those that already exist at the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and State Department, according to the OMB.
The new AI roles offer employees some major perks, including incentives of up to 25% of their basic pay (plus extra multiplied by the years in the service agreement) for relocation, recruitment, and retention, according to a memo from the US Office of Personnel Management.
The office also encourages agencies to offer flexible work schedules and remote work options to those filling critical AI roles.
Open positions listed on a government job board show base salaries topping out at over $143,000 for certain IT specialists dealing with AI.
Under the new order, agencies must also prove that their use of AI does not hurt the public, and if they can't, they must immediately stop using AI tools.
Harris explained that, for example, "If the Veterans Administration wants to use AI in VA hospitals to help doctors diagnose patients, they would first have to demonstrate that AI does not produce racially biased diagnoses."
The new policy also sets up a number of guidelines that federal agencies must adopt by the end of the year, including publishing an annual inventory of their use of AI, releasing any government-owned AI code they use, and making sure a human oversees all AI tools.
The expansion of the government's AI workforce is the latest part of Biden's AI plan, which kicked off with an executive order in October setting up transparency policies around the buzzy tech.