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
in Cooperation With
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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 Assistant Professor at St. Thomas University College of Law. He is writing for Lawfare as a Tarbell Fellow.
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 and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.

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