Senate Working Group Releases AI “Roadmap”
A bipartisan Senate working group has released an artificial intelligence roadmap meant to guide Congress on the creation of AI-related legislation (Bloomberg Government, subscription).
What’s going on: “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Wednesday unveiled a 30-page ‘policy roadmap’ with Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD), Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Todd Young (R-IN)—members of a bipartisan working group on AI that first met nearly a year ago to address the technology’s sweeping economic, social and national security implications.”
What’s in it: The document—which, like a recently released, first-of-its-kind NAM report, emphasizes innovation and adoption of AI—lays out policy recommendations. Key among them are calls for:
- The allocation of at least $32 billion annually to AI research and development;
- Legislation related to training, retraining and upskilling the U.S. labor force to account for the increasing presence of AI in the workplace;
- The identification of gaps in the application of existing law to AI and, as needed, development of legislative language to address such gaps, including place-appropriate, case-by-case requirements on high-risk uses of AI, if necessary (in alignment with the NAM recommendation to review existing laws before enacting new ones and if/where AI regulation is necessary, that it be context-specific);
- The private sector to undertake detailed testing and evaluation to understand the potential harm of AI and a call for companies not to release AI systems that fail to meet industry standards; and
- A comprehensive federal data privacy law.
Why it’s important: “All possible futures for modern manufacturing in the U.S. involve AI,” wrote Johnson & Johnson Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Operations & Risk Officer and NAM Board Chair Kathy Wengel in the introduction to the NAM’s AI report.
- “We need a policy environment that supports innovation and growth in manufacturing AI, because it will bolster U.S. competitiveness and leadership in this critical emerging field.”