U.S. Department of Justice steps up focus on AI law enforcement, warns of tougher penalties

The U.S. Department of Justice is stepping up its focus on artificial intelligence, with officials warning on Thursday that companies and individuals who knowingly misuse the technology to advance white-collar crimes such as price fixing and market manipulation risk harsher sentences.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco will also say that the Justice Department will consider how well companies manage the risks of artificial intelligence technology every time it evaluates a company’s compliance program. The program is a set of policies and procedures designed to detect misconduct and ensure that executives and employees comply with the law.

The comments from the Justice Department’s No. 2 official underscore the level of concern among law enforcement officials about how foreign adversaries or domestic entities can use rapidly evolving technology to harm the United States. Monaco disclosed the policy move a day after the Justice Department announced charges against a former Google software engineer, accusing him of stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets from the Mountain View, California-based company while secretly working with two Chinese companies. .

“All new technology is a double-edged sword – but artificial intelligence may be the sharpest blade yet. It holds great promise for improving our lives, but when criminals use it to fuel their illegal activities (including corporate crime), the dangers are enormous,” Monaco will tell the American Bar Association White Collar Lawyers Conference in San Francisco. Prepared speech.

Monaco said the Ministry of Justice has a long history of imposing enhanced sentences on offenders whose actions are deemed to pose particularly serious risks to victims and the public. The same principle applies to artificial intelligence, she said.

“If AI is deliberately misused to make white-collar crime more serious,” she said, “our prosecutors will seek harsher sentences for individual and corporate defendants.”

“And,” she added, “compliance officers should take note. When our prosecutors evaluate a company’s compliance program (as they do in all corporate resolutions), they consider the extent to which the program Mitigating a company’s most significant risks. For an increasing number of businesses, this now includes the risk of misuse of AI.