Congress warns science agency over AI grant to tech-linked think tank

Key members of the House Science Committee are sounding the alarm over a planned research partnership on artificial intelligence between the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the RAND Corp. — an influential think tank tied to tech billionaires, the AI industry and the controversial “effective altruism” movement.

Lawmakers from both parties sent a letter to NIST on Dec. 14 that chastised the agency for a lack of transparency and for failing to announce a competitive process for planned research grants related to the new U.S. AI Safety Institute.

The lawmakers also warned NIST about the quality of AI safety research stemming from outside groups, saying they routinely “hide behind secrecy,” “fail to provide evidence of their claims” and often disagree on basic definitions or principles.

“We believe this work should not be rushed at the expense of doing it right,” wrote the six lawmakers, including House Science Chair Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), ranking member Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and leaders of key subcommittees.

NIST, a low-profile agency housed within the Commerce Department, has been central to President Joe Biden’s AI plans. The White House tasked NIST with establishing the AI Safety Institute in its October executive order on AI, and the agency released an influential framework to help organizations manage AI risks earlier this year.

NIST has not publicly disclosed which groups it intends to give research grants to through the AI Safety Institute, and the House Science letter doesn’t identify the organizations at issue by name. But one of them is RAND, according to one AI researcher and one AI policy professional at a major tech company who each have knowledge of the situation.

A recent RAND report on biosecurity risks posed by advanced AI models is listed in the House letter’s footnotes as a worrying example of research that has not gone through academic peer review.
But NIST is also notoriously resource-strapped, and will almost certainly need help from outside researchers to fulfill its growing AI mandate.