DOE Delivers Initial Risk Assessment on Artificial Intelligence for Critical Energy Infrastructure

WASHINGTON, DC – As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s approach towards harnessing the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ensuring its responsible and safe deployment, the U.S. Department of Energy today released a summary report on the potential benefits and risks of AI use for critical energy infrastructure, developed under President Biden’s Executive Order (EO) 14110 – Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development & Use of Artificial Intelligence.

DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER), supported by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), worked with energy sector partners to develop an interim assessment – summarized in this report – that identifies the potential benefits of AI use in the energy sector, as well as key sources of potential risk to the sector. 

CESER leads the Department’s role as the Sector Risk Management Agency (SRMA) for the energy sector and works closely with public and private sector partners to strengthen the security and resilience of the nation’s critical energy infrastructure.

Building on this report, CESER is announcing plans to expand its engagement with energy sector partners on artificial intelligence, from a security and resilience perspective, over the course of 2024. The office will host listening sessions on artificial intelligence with energy sector partners and technical experts this summer and will issue an updated assessment by the end of the year.

“Artificial intelligence holds both incredible promise and potential challenges  for the U.S. energy sector,” said Puesh M. Kumar, Director of the DOE Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER). “The assessment we are releasing today is an integral piece of our ongoing engagement with the sector to harness the power of AI to improve our overall security and resilience, while also working to identify and mitigate risk.”

“This assessment is a critical contribution to the safety, security, and governance of artificial intelligence in the energy sector,” said Helena Fu, DOE’s Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Director of the Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies (CET). “DOE is turning aspirations into action, leveraging the transformative potential of AI to address pressing needs such as enhancing the cybersecurity of the power grid, engineering new materials for batteries, and building the next-generation of grid-scale storage solutions.”

The report assesses that AI has the potential to be of tremendous benefit to critical energy infrastructure, with a wide range of benefits that can dramatically improve nearly all aspects of the sector – including security, reliability, and resilience. However, it finds that the path to realizing these benefits reveals the clear need for regularly updated, risk-aware best practice guidance to facilitate the safe, secure, and beneficial deployment of AI in critical energy infrastructure.

The report identifies ten broad sets of AI applications for critical energy infrastructure, and four categories of potential risk: unintentional failure modes of AI, adversarial attacks against AI, hostile applications of AI, and compromise of the AI software supply chain.

The report identifies key next steps for the energy sector on artificial intelligence, including:

• Convening energy stakeholders and technical experts over the coming months to collaboratively assess potential AI risks to critical energy infrastructure – as well as ways in which AI could potentially strengthen energy resilience and our ability to respond to threats.
• Continuing to serve as a trusted partner for the energy sector, and within the government, in offering candid, science- and engineering-driven insights on the benefits and risks that artificial intelligence presents.
• Examining, in coordination with energy sector stakeholders, the public availability of energy sector data and its potential to impact the security posture of owners or operators of energy infrastructure – including when potentially leveraged using AI-enabled tools. 
• Supporting the research and development of innovative tools and technologies that leverage artificial intelligence to strengthen the security and resilience of the U.S. energy system, including against cyber or physical threats.
• Exploring ways in which AI can be leveraged by existing CESER programs, such as the Energy Threat Analysis Center (ETAC), to ensure that they continue to operate at the speed and scale required by a changing energy system and dynamic risk landscape.

CESER and OCET will continue to collaborate with other DOE offices, federal agencies, and energy sector partners on a risk-informed approach to secure and resilient AI.

For more information about DOE’s work to secure and protect America’s energy sector, visit: energy.gov/CESER and energy.gov/CET.