Cybersecurity & Tech

Lawfare Daily: DHS Assistant Secretary Mary Ellen Callahan on AI Threats

Kevin Frazier, Mary Ellen Callahan, Jen Patja
Monday, July 15, 2024, 8:00 AM
How is DHS thinking about the risks of AI?

Published by The Lawfare Institute
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Mary Ellen Callahan, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary, joins Kevin Frazier, a Tarbell Fellow at Lawfare, to discuss the DHS’s recently released report on the potential of AI to lead to the production of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) threats. Assistant Secretary Callahan shares the origins of the report, its key findings, and DHS’s next steps. This conversation also explores pre-existing enforcement gaps in biological and chemical regulations and ongoing efforts to bolster AI expertise in the federal government. The DHS report is available here. More information on the AI Corps is available here.

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Kevin Frazier is an AI Innovation and Law Fellow at UT Austin School of Law and Senior Editor at Lawfare .
Mary Ellen Callahan is an American attorney serving as the Assistant Secretary for the DHS Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office
Jen Patja is the editor of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security, and serves as Lawfare’s Director of Audience Engagement. Previously, she was Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics and Deputy Director of the Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier, where she worked to deepen public understanding of constitutional democracy and inspire meaningful civic participation.
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