Leveraging AI to Advance the DHS Mission
Committed to safeguarding the American people, our homeland and our values, DHS continues to innovate in support of its missions.
While it is now frequently in the news, the concept of AI has been around since the 1950s. Initially understood as a machine’s ability to perform tasks that would have previously required human intelligence, now AI encompasses systems capable of reasoning, inference, and learning. The sophistication of AI systems has grown substantially in the past decade, and particularly in the past few years. AI systems are available to users through internet-based interfaces, increasingly integrated into software, and deployed by businesses and governments around the world.
DHS has used AI for well over a decade and continues to increase the breadth, depth, and maturity of AI’s application across the Department. For example, as early as 2015, the Department piloted the use of machine learning (ML) technologies to support identity verification tasks. Since then, DHS has successfully implemented other AI-powered applications to enhance efficiencies and foster innovation in border security, cybersecurity, immigration, trade, transportation safety, workforce productivity, and other domains
critical to protecting the homeland. Every DHS component and office is working to meaningfully assess the potential benefits of AI to the DHS mission, and to responsibly harness its potential to further transform our operations. The Department has already published 41 different uses of AI in the AI Use Case Inventory at https://www.dhs.gov/data/AI_inventory, and the list will grow as we expand use of AI.
Some examples include:
- DHS is using AI to keep fentanyl and other dangerous drugs out of our country. The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) uses an ML model to identify potentially suspicious patterns in vehicle-crossing histories. CBP recently used the model to flag a car for secondary review, which yielded the discovery of over 75 kgs of drugs hidden in the automobile.
- DHS is using AI to aid our law enforcement officers in investigating heinous crimes. In 2023, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations Operation Renewed Hope identified more than 300 previously unknown victims of sexual exploitation thanks in part to an ML model that enhanced older images to provide investigators with new leads.
- DHS is using AI at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to more efficiently assess damage to homes, buildings, and other properties after a disaster. This approach allows FEMA inspectors the ability to look at some impacted structure damage remotely instead of conducting inspections exclusively in-person, leading to swifter delivery of disaster assistance to survivors.
- DHS is using AI to make travel safer and easier. By introducing customer-facing technologies such as Touchless Check-In at the airport, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) provides travelers an optional way to navigate TSA security processes, check bags, and board their flights by taking just a photograph. These and other efforts are already saving time at security checkpoints and reducing physical touchpoints.
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