White House Releases New Memos on AI Acquisition, Innovation

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) unveiled two new artificial intelligence memos last Friday, directing agencies on AI acquisition and outlining next steps as agencies integrate the technology into their operations.

“OMB’s new policies demonstrate that the government is committed to spending American taxpayer dollars efficiently and responsibly, while increasing public trust through the federal use of AI,” Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer’s Greg Barbaccia said in a press release regarding the memos.

President Donald Trump replaced former President Joe Biden’s AI executive order with his own after taking office. Trump’s order focuses on removing barriers and driving innovation across government.

The new memos align with Trump’s AI executive order to “remove unnecessary bureaucratic restrictions, allow agencies to be more efficient and cost-effective, and support a competitive American AI marketplace,” said Lynne Parker, principal deputy director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, in the press release.

Accelerating AI Innovation

The first memo, “Accelerating Federal Use of AI through Innovation, Governance, and Public Trust,” directs agencies remove barriers to AI while “maintaining strong safeguards for civil rights, civil liberties and privacy.”

“The United States is at the forefront of AI development, and agencies must adopt a forward-leaning and pro-innovation approach that takes advantage of this technology to help shape the future of government operations,” the memo said.

The memo continues efforts to establish chief AI officers and tasks the OMB Director with creating a CAIO AI Council within the next 90 days. The council will coordinate AI development and use across agencies, ensure compliance with relevant policies, promote shared tools and best practices and will automatically sunset five years after its creation unless extended by the OMB Director.

The directive also tasks agencies with the updating of its internal policies on IT infrastructure, data, cybersecurity and privacy, as well as creating a generative AI policy, within 270 days.

The guidance requires agencies to assess their AI adoption maturity to track progress and needs. It also establishes a “high-impact AI” category for use cases with potential risks to public rights or safety. AI accountability will follow existing government IT processes to avoid added bureaucracy. Agencies are also encouraged to prioritize American-made AI solutions.

Modernizing AI Acquisition

The second memo, “Driving Efficient Acquisition of Artificial Intelligence in Government,” directs agencies to “procure effective and trustworthy AI capabilities in a timely and cost-effective manner.”

The main thrust of the memo centers around three key items.

The first ensures government and the public benefit from a competitive American AI marketplace, direct agencies to “pay careful attention to vendor sourcing, data portability and long-term interoperability to avoid significant and costly dependencies on a single vendor.”

The second emphasizes monitoring AI performance and managing risk, calling for the evaluation and acquisition of AI systems that are “fit for purpose and deliver consistent results.”

The third promotes AI acquisition through cross-functional engagement. The memo states this coordination is “critical for surfacing potential issues sooner rather than later to avoid obstacles and risks in procuring new technology,” while directing agency officials to have “agile engagement” with the technology during the acquisition phase.

The memo also directs the General Services Administration, in coordination with OMB, to develop a plan to release publicly available guides to assist agencies with AI procurement within 100 days.