The Department of Commerce has announced the appointment of five new members to the executive leadership team of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI).
The new appointments made by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo are: Paul Christiano as head of AI safety; Adam Russell as chief vision officer; Mara Campbell as acting chief operating officer and chief of staff; Rob Reich as senior advisor; and Mark Latonero as head of international engagement.
They will join AISI Director Elizabeth Kelly and Chief Technology Officer Elham Tabassi, whom Raimondo named to the leadership team in February.
“To safeguard our global leadership on responsible AI and ensure we’re equipped to fulfill our mission to mitigate the risks of AI and harness its benefits, we need the top talent our nation has to offer. That is precisely why we’ve selected these individuals, who are the best in their fields, to join the U.S. AI Safety Institute executive leadership team,” said Raimondo.
“I am very pleased to welcome these talented experts to the U.S. AI Safety Institute leadership team to help establish the measurement science that will support the development of AI that is safe and trustworthy,” added NIST Director Laurie Locascio. “They each bring unique experiences that will help the institute build a solid foundation for AI safety going into the future.”
Christiano is taking on the most tech-focused role, as he will be designing and conducting tests of frontier AI models. He will also contribute guidance on conducting these evaluations, as well as risk mitigations to enhance model safety and security.
Previously, Christiano ran the language model alignment team at OpenAI and founded the Alignment Research Center, a non-profit research organization that seeks to align machine learning systems with human interests.
NIST announced the AISI in November 2023 at the direction of President Biden to support the responsibilities assigned to the Department of Commerce under the administration’s landmark AI executive order.
