In March 2024 the US Office of Management and Budget issued Memorandum M-24-10, “Advancing Governance, Innovation, and Risk Management for Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence.” Issued under the Biden administration’s October 2023 AI executive order, it set the first government-wide requirements for how federal agencies adopt and manage AI.
The memorandum directs each covered agency to designate a Chief AI Officer responsible for coordinating AI use and risk management, and to maintain an inventory of its AI use cases. Its core feature is a set of minimum risk-management practices for AI that is “safety-impacting” or “rights-impacting,” meaning systems whose outputs could affect human safety or people’s civil rights, civil liberties, privacy, equal opportunity, or access to government benefits and services. Before using such systems, agencies must complete impact assessments, test for performance in real-world conditions, monitor for and mitigate harmful outcomes, provide human oversight, and offer people affected by decisions notice and avenues for redress.
The guidance established a baseline accountability framework for the federal government’s own use of AI rather than regulating private industry. Its significance shifted with the change of administration: the January 2025 Trump executive order directed OMB to revise M-24-10 within 60 days, illustrating how quickly US federal AI policy can change. For the public, the memorandum set an early template for what responsible government AI use should look like.