Homeland Security Dept. Wants to Use AI to Screen Cargo, Find Drugs

The rise of ChatGPT is causing everyone to explore using AI, including the Department of Homeland Security. 

On Friday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced(Opens in a new window) he’s creating a task force that’ll focus on using AI programs to bolster national security while also coming up with ways to defend the US against such technologies. 

“We must address the many ways in which artificial intelligence will drastically alter the threat landscape and augment the arsenal of tools we possess to succeed in the face of these threats,” he said in speech(Opens in a new window) at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Mayorkas noted the agency is facing “a dramatically changed environment” compared to 2003, around the time when the department was first formed. In particular, AI technologies are accelerating into people’s lives in an “uncharted and basically unmanaged fashion,” he said. 

Mayorkas sees opportunities and potential threats from the growing technology, which includes AI-powered chatbots capable of developing malware and other AI programs that can create create deepfake videos and images. “What will this growth mean for our safety and security over the next 20 years?” he asked.   

In response, DHS’s first-ever AI task force will explore using the same AI technologies, but to help secure the US supply chain. “We will seek to deploy AI to more ably screen cargo, identify the importation of goods produced with forced labor, and manage risk,” the agency said in a statement(Opens in a new window).

Interestingly, the agency sees potential in using AI programs to detect illegal fentanyl shipments into the US with the hopes of disrupting criminal drug networks, although DHS was thin on details. The other area the department wants to apply AI programs involves identifying and locating victims of online child sexual exploitation and abuse. This likely entails using AI algorithms to scan child sex abuse imagery that can circulate over social media and Dark Web sites. 

The task force’s final focus will cover investigating how artificial intelligence could affect DHS’s efforts to protect US critical infrastructure. This suggests the agency will examine whether AI programs could aid state-sponsored hackers in infiltrating US networks. 

The task force arrives as governments are starting to explore regulating AI programs amid fears the same technologies could disrupt society. Earlier this month, the US issued a public request for comments to help it start crafting policies around auditing AI programs, an early step in potential regulation.