A House Democrat tapped to lead his party’s efforts on artificial intelligence has introduced legislation that would establish a test program within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to give critical infrastructure operators free access to frontier AI models to protect their systems.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., introduced the AI Cyber Defense Act Monday, inspired by the series of cyberattacks on water facilities in recent months. “If we don’t get ahead of it, it can mean a disaster for our families,” he said at a news conference when he first announced the measure and others tackling water cybersecurity.
Gottheimer holds a couple of posts relevant to the legislation: He’s one of three co-chairs of the House Democratic Commission on Artificial Intelligence, and the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee’s cyber subcommittee. He also has bipartisan support for the bill, with co-sponsors Reps. Don Bacon, R-Neb., Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, Hillary Scholten, D-Mich., and Greg Landsman, D-Ohio.
The bill directs the Department of Homeland Security, through CISA, to create a program “through which owners and operators of critical infrastructure that participate in the Program are able to securely utilize artificial intelligence procured through the Secretary and technical assistance provided by the Secretary to protect against, detect, test for, and remediate vulnerabilities in the cybersecurity of such critical infrastructure.”
AI-tinged, water-focused cybersecurity pilot programs are all the rage lately. The introduction of Gottheimer’s legislation is adjacent to, but different from, a test program that the Office of the National Cyber Director recently announced in Texas.