National Institute of Standards and Technology

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a U.S. federal agency under the Department of Commerce that develops and promotes measurement, standards, and technology. NIST plays a key role in AI governance through frameworks like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and cybersecurity standards.

NIST is directed by the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 to develop AI risk management resources. The agency takes a collaborative approach, working with private and public sectors to develop consensus-driven standards and frameworks.

NIST's AI-related work includes the AI Risk Management Framework, the NIST Privacy Framework, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and various AI-related special publications addressing topics like AI bias management.

Under executive-order-14110, NIST receives expanded responsibilities for AI governance and standards development. The agency is directed to establish guidelines and best practices for developing safe, secure, and trustworthy AI systems, including developing companion resources to the nist-ai-rmf-1-0 for generative-ai and creating guidance for evaluating and auditing AI capabilities. NIST must also establish guidelines for ai-red-teaming tests and develop tools for assessing AI systems' capabilities to generate outputs representing various security threats.