Artificial Intelligence And The Landscape Of US National Security Law

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 that can create so-called "deepfakes" are just a few examples of AI systems that may implicate a number of US national security laws.