The push to designate AI as the next critical infrastructure sector
Americans for Responsible Innovation report urges designating AI models, companies and supporting infrastructure as critical infrastructure with CISA as sector lead.
A report from the nonprofit Americans for Responsible Innovation calls for the federal government to declare the AI sector — including frontier model designs, model weights, datacenters, AI hardware and semiconductors — the 17th critical infrastructure sector, with CISA as the lead agency for sector cyberthreats. The authors argue AI is concentrated among a handful of foundation models and interdependent with other sectors, so a single attack on the AI stack could cascade widely, citing incidents like Iranian drone attacks on Amazon datacenters. Former DHS officials note the designation would unlock federal resources such as CDM access and threat intelligence, but warn that picking a lead agency could trigger a bureaucratic turf war with Commerce and Treasury.
- Report defines the AI sector as spanning model development, training, deployment and serving infrastructure.
- CISA recommended as lead due to experience managing eight other critical infrastructure sectors.
- Designation unlocks incident response, cybersecurity software, and threat intelligence resources.
- Experts predict frontier models will eventually be covered, but agency turf battles loom.
From the original article
5 min read at cyberscoop.com
The designation would unlock a range of federal services, tools and resources for an industry that policymakers view as increasingly tied to national and economic security. A data center in Vernon, Calif. They are groups calling for AI, and the technology it sits on, to be designated as critical infrastructure.
By @CyberScoopNews · cyberscoop.com
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.