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Federal Agency AI Use Case Inventories
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OMB Memos on Federal Agency AI Use
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memoranda set requirements and guidance for covered federal agencies that develop, acquire or use AI.
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Aperçu
M-25-21 addresses agency use and governance, M-25-22 addresses procurement, and M-26-04 adds AI principles for certain large language models. Agencies should read each memo’s scope and current status rather than treat them as rules for private-sector users.
Plongée profonde
OMB memoranda translate federal policy and statutes into directions for agencies. They can set deadlines, responsibilities and minimum processes, but their audience and scope are defined in each document. An agency should not assume that one AI memo covers every technology, mission or national-security system, and private organizations should not treat federal internal guidance as a general law that directly governs them. OMB Memorandum M-25-21, issued in April 2025, sets out governance, innovation and public-trust requirements for covered agency AI use. It rescinded and replaced the prior M-24-10. It addresses AI developed, used or acquired by or for covered agencies, including agency governance, use-case inventories and additional requirements for high-impact uses. The memo describes high impact in terms of outputs serving as a principal basis for decisions or actions with legal, material, binding or significant effects on rights or safety. The specific implementation rules and exceptions must be read in the memorandum itself. M-25-22, issued the same day, addresses federal AI acquisition and replaced M-24-18. It focuses on how agencies buy AI, including competition, data portability, interoperability and contract terms. M-26-04, dated December 2025, sets Unbiased AI Principles for covered agency use of large language models and complements M-25-21 and M-25-22. It has its own defined agency and model scope and excludes national-security systems as specified in the memo. These documents are related, but their requirements are not identical. The OMB memorandum index is important because guidance can be revised, rescinded or supplemented. A sound summary identifies the memo number, issue date, covered agencies, technology, requirement, exceptions and any later amendment. When a requirement conflicts with another law or policy, agencies must resolve that through authorized legal and policy channels rather than choosing whichever memo is easier. Public versions of inventories and reporting may have their own exceptions. Always consult current official text and agency implementation materials. Legal offices should review edge cases.
Impact stratégique
Risques et sécurité
Les dommages catastrophiques et quotidiens causés par l’IA dépendent tous deux de la personne qui comprend les risques et qui peut agir.
Décisions plus claires
Les connaissances du public et des professionnels déterminent si une politique de sécurité forte est politiquement possible.
Passer à travers le battage médiatique
Des explications claires réduisent la capture par le battage médiatique, les relations publiques en laboratoire et le théâtre d'éthique vague.
The Future of OMB Memos on Federal Agency AI Use
Federal AI guidance may change as OMB issues new memoranda, the administration updates policy and Congress revises statutory requirements. Agencies may refine inventories, high-impact definitions, procurement practices or model-specific principles. National-security uses can follow separate directives. Administrators should maintain a current crosswalk, track rescissions and identify an owner for each requirement rather than relying on a copied checklist. Recheck official guidance at least annually. Policy teams should assign owners for status checks, internal controls and public inventories where required. This work continues.
Mise en œuvre dans le monde réel
An agency team checks whether an AI use case meets M-25-21’s high-impact definition before applying its additional safeguards.
A procurement officer uses M-25-22 to address vendor documentation, data portability and interoperability in an AI contract.
A governance lead checks M-26-04 scope and its national-security exception before applying its requirements to a model.
A reader checks OMB’s memorandum index for rescissions and updates before quoting an older AI memo.
Risques et garde-fous
Traiter le risque existentiel comme de la science-fiction alors que les capacités s’accroissent.
Confondre sécurité des produits de surface et alignement sous haute autonomie.
Laisser le public non anglophone et non expert avec uniquement des sources de mauvaise qualité.
Feuille de route de mise en œuvre
Séparez les dommages causés aux produits, leur mauvaise utilisation et les risques de perte de contrôle/désalignement.
Demandez quelles preuves pourraient changer votre point de vue sur les délais et la gravité.
Préférez les sources primaires et les évaluations concrètes aux allégations marketing.
Identifiez une voie d’action : carrière, politique, financement ou compétences – et pas seulement la sensibilisation.
Continuez à explorer
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Questions fréquemment posées
What is OMB Memos on Federal Agency AI Use?
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memoranda set requirements and guidance for covered federal agencies that develop, acquire or use AI. M-25-21 addresses agency use and governance, M-25-22 addresses procurement, and M-26-04 adds AI principles for certain large language models. Agencies should read each memo’s scope and current status rather than treat them as rules for private-sector users.
Which memo contains Unbiased AI Principles for certain LLM use?
M-26-04 sets LLM-related principles and complements the 2025 memos.
What should procurement staff consult alongside the memo?
OMB guidance works alongside statutes and agency implementation rules.
How should an agency verify whether an older memo is current?
The index lists current memoranda and later rescissions or updates.
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