Artificial Intelligence

The Chief AI Officer (CAIO) at HUD plays a central role in steering the agency towards responsible and impactful Artificial Intelligence (AI) use. This crucial task is accomplished through three key focus areas: coordinating AI activities, promoting innovation, and managing risks.

Coordinating AI Activities involves establishing a department-wide AI governance strategy that reflects the eight key pillars of the Executive Order. These pillars include ensuring AI is deployed ethically, transparently, and with clear accountability – all crucial aspects for fostering public trust in AI solutions. The CAIO champions collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, including academia, industry partners, and other government agencies. This collaborative approach aligns with the Executive Order's emphasis on fostering a society-wide effort to guide responsible AI development. By working together, these entities can share best practices, and align to OMB guidance to identify high-impact applications, and ultimately advance the responsible use of AI in housing and urban development.

Promoting Innovation is another key responsibility of the CAIO. The CAIO fosters an environment where responsible AI innovation can flourish emphasizing AI solutions for real-world challenges, investing in research and collaboration, and promoting explainable AI systems. This, along with encouraging HUD programs to stay abreast of emerging technologies, creates a framework where responsible risk-taking and exploration are valued. Ultimately, the Executive Order sets the stage for impactful AI innovation by agencies like HUD.

Mitigating risk is a critical focus area for the CAIO. This is achieved by identifying and addressing potential risks associated with AI systems, such as fairness, bias, privacy concerns, and security vulnerabilities. This proactive approach ensures HUD's AI development lifecycle protects those we serve. The CAIO further champions transparency and explainability in AI systems, aligning with the Executive Order's emphasis on clear and understandable decision-making processes. Promoting transparency and explainability allows for human oversight and understanding of how AI makes decisions within HUD. This focus helps to mitigate potential biases and ensures that AI systems are deployed ethically and responsibly, in accordance with both the Executive Order and upcoming guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

By fulfilling these responsibilities, the CAIO plays a vital role not only in ensuring HUD leverages AI to achieve its mission but also in mitigating potential risks and promoting public trust in the use of AI for housing and urban development initiatives.