The Department of Homeland Security’s Artificial Intelligence Corps was established in February to guide the agency’s use of AI to strengthen critical infrastructure and improve enterprise cybersecurity.
During a panel discussion titled “DHS’s New AI Corps” at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Homeland Security Summit, officials spoke on implementing AI throughout DHS operations and how the capability is being leveraged across strategic mission areas during a “peak of inflated expectations.”
Procentrix’s Philip Miller, DHS’s Elizabeth Pucheck and the Transportation Security Administration’s Matt Gilkeson all gave their thoughts on the challenges of integrating AI throughout the enterprise and how the government can provide transparency to citizens while developing new AI capabilities.
DHS’ AI Implementation Challenges
Pucheck, chief data officer at U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, introduced two challenges when implementing AI — perception of capability and data security. To support her remarks, Gilkeson, chief AI and data and technology officer at TSA, said developers must look at AI from a human lens in the beginning stages of development.
“I think the other challenge is looking at it from a people-first perspective,” Gilkeson stated. “We’re not looking at it as a technology. We’re looking at an opportunity to improve training and digital literacy, which will improve people’s understanding of what the technology can do and how it is formed.”
DHS Promotes Data Sharing & Policy
With the increased development of AI technologies, officials believe it is critical to promote data sharing to ensure DHS can efficiently relay findings with partnering entities during developmental processes.
“My goal before I retire from this world is to develop data sharing and to make sure that access to data is easy and so that we are not replicating it and not wasting its resources,” noted Pucheck.
Gilkeson also emphasized the importance of technology adoption at the policy level.
“If you want to enable technology adoption, you need to make that the intention of your policy. In recent months, that’s been the tone of how we’ve looked at artificial intelligence adoption and collaboration across the components,” Gilkeson stated.
DHS Leveraging AI for Cybersecurity
As DHS and its components continue to field AI to improve cybersecurity capabilities through the agency’s AI Corps, Miller, senior vice president of law enforcement and judiciary programs at Procentrix, pushed for more individualized development to improve “cybersecurity and the ability to firewall off these cases, even within an individualized tenant for a specific investigative agency.”
At the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Defense R&D Summit on Dec. 11, you can learn how the military plans to tackle upcoming challenges, including battling cyber and AI-powered adversaries. Secure your ticket to the 2025 Defense R&D Summit now!
