Steptoe White Paper: Artificial Intelligence And The Landscape Of US National Security Law

Introduction

This white paper is intended to provide a broad overview of the various US national security laws that can apply to AI, illustrating the breadth of legal regimes that AI companies and companies using AI must keep in mind and the complexity of applying many of these regimes to novel developments in this rapidly evolving space.¹

Much of today's discussion on AI centers around the lack of laws and regulations and the need for policymakers to catch up to rapidly evolving industry developments. Despite this narrative, AI is already subject to a significant number of national security-related laws and several new legal regimes will be implemented in short order. These national security-related regimes can apply to obvious cases such as the use of AI in weapons systems, but can also apply to AI with no clear, direct connection to national security. AI systems used in critical infrastructure, AI algorithms that power social media feeds, and generative AI