Kelly Named as Director of AI Safety Institute

The Biden administration has named Elizabeth Kelly, a former White House aide, as the inaugural director of the U.S. AI Safety Institute. The new institute was established by the administration under the National Institute for Standards and Technology.

“The Safety Institute’s ambitious mandate to develop guidelines, evaluate models, and pursue fundamental research will be vital to addressing the risks and seizing the opportunities of AI,” Kelly said in the announcement of her new role.

The institute is planning to have “red team” testing standards created by July for large AI developers to support responsible and safe AI systems. While there are current requirements for AI companies to test their systems now, there are no universal standards, prompting the creation of these new standards.

The Safety Institute includes more than 200 stakeholders from all sectors, including Stanford’s Institute for Human Centered AI, The Ohio State University, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft, in addition to state entities such as the Kansas Office of Information Tech Services and the California Department of Technology.