DHS picks OMB official to lead its new AI Corps
The Department of Homeland Security has named Michael Boyce as the new director of its AI Corps, an initiative to hire 50 artificial intelligence experts for the agency throughout the year. The announcement comes as DHS continues to ramp up its focus on the technology, and follows the agency’s release of a new AI roadmap and the establishment of an AI task force.
“The Department of Homeland Security is by most accounts the largest federal civilian agency, the largest federal law enforcement agency, and the federal agency with [the] most daily interactions with the public,” said Boyce in a LinkedIn post Thursday. “As a former refugee officer who used to travel all over the world to determine which refugee officers can receive protection in the United States, I am keenly aware of the life-and-death importance of that mission.”
The AI Corps, part of the department’s office of the chief information officer, will be expected to provide guidance for topic areas including software engineering, machine learning, and data science. DHS CIO Eric Hysen currently serves as the agency’s chief AI officer. Notably, the department’s components are already using myriad forms of AI, according to the agency’s AI Inventory.
Boyce was previously a senior policy analyst at the Office of Management and Budget, where he focused on FedRAMP and AI policy, according to DHS. He also worked as the chief of innovation and design for the Refugee, Asylum and International Operations Directorate at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and as a product and strategy lead at the U.S. Digital Service.
