US imposes AI skills requirement on CyberCorps pipeline New guidance requires incoming scholars to demonstrate skills at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity, a move that fast-tracks changes outlined in recent National Science Foundation policy. The CyberCorps scholarship program, a recruitment pipeline designed to move qualifying students into government cybersecurity jobs, is overhauling recruitment standards to require that applicants demonstrate skills at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity, according to an email obtained by Nextgov/FCW. New scholars will no longer be accepted into a legacy version of the CyberCorps program without “a description on how they will develop competencies at the intersection of cybersecurity and AI,” according to an email sent Wednesday by the Office of Personnel Management and the National Science Foundation, which says the changes are “effective immediately.” The directive is informed by a February solicitation from NSF that restructured the program to center on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity integration. The email warns that students enrolled today “will not be employable when they graduate in 2-3 years without significant AI background.” There is no single cutoff date for the shift. While the National Science Foundation typically rolls out program changes through new grant cycles, the email’s “effective immediately” directive is significant because it forces that change sooner by applying AI-focused standards to new students entering the pipeline now. Any student in the new program “must be proficient in using AI in cybersecurity or providing security and resilience for AI systems. Therefore, new students in the legacy CyberCorps program must learn to acquire AI expertise to augment their cybersecurity expertise,” the email also says. The revamp comes as companies like Anthropic — which recently unveiled its cyber-focused Mythos model — and OpenAI roll out increasingly advanced AI systems with cybersecurity applications that have caught the attention of the federal