How the US govt can build AI surge capacity (www.iaps.ai)

A new report, Building AI Surge Capacity, warns the U.S. government lacks the specialized AI security talent and rapid onboarding mechanisms needed to respond to AI-driven national security crises—where hours or days can be decisive. The authors outline seven plausible near-term scenarios (e.g., AI-enabled cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, model misuse to design biological agents, and failures of deployed defense systems that could spur unintended escalation) and map the technical expertise required to manage them. Their “Typology of AI Security Talent” and workforce mapping show that while some federal teams exist, most deep, interdisciplinary expertise sits in industry, academia, FFRDCs, nonprofits, and the independent researcher community—outside the government and therefore slow to tap during emergencies. To close that gap the report analyzes existing, but slow, hiring and clearance pathways (Intergovernmental Personnel Act, Schedule A, consultant appointments) and proposes six concrete fixes: agency inventories of AI capabilities; a National AI Reserve Corps of pre-cleared cross-sector experts; prearranged/“zero-hour” contract surge capacity; expanded hiring authorities or IPA reform; expedited, risk-adjusted security clearances; and investments in technical recruiting. For the AI/ML community this signals likely new federal engagement models—pre-cleared reserve roles, faster contract vehicles, and reformed clearance/conflict-of-interest rules—that could accelerate researcher mobilization in crises and reshape public-sector collaboration on AI safety and security.