A proposed US ‘AI in Government Act 2018‘ would seek to both foster bigger official support for Artificial Intelligence at the Federal level, while also highlighting areas of potential future concern.
Under the Act – a bi-partisan initiative – some of Uncle Sam’s executive agencies would be tasked to specifically research and consider AI applications and strategy, as well as create an advisory board to address AI policy and issues, including:
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Expanding the General Services Administration office to provide “technical expertise to relevant government agencies,” research Federal AI policy, and “promote [American] competitiveness through agency and industry cooperation” to ensure the United Sates would have global competitive advantage in AI, supported by giving the government the resources it needs to “hire experts, do research, and work across federal agencies to use AI technologies in smart and effective ways”
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Set up an advisory board to address AI policy opportunities and challenges for executive agencies
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Establish strategies for using AI in “Federal data strategy”
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Identify skills and competencies for AI and establish or update what civil servants would need to know on the topic, skills-wise.
The Bill’s sponsors cited both the promises and risks of AI as significant motivations for their proposed legislation, noting that, “[AI] will have significant impacts for our country, economy, and society [so] ensuring that our government has the capabilities and expertise to help navigate those impacts will be important in the coming years and decades.
“[This] legislation [ensures that] our government understands the benefits and pitfalls of this technology as it engages in a responsible, accountable rollout of AI.”
The work is the American equivalent of a Private Member’s Bill, so may not progress that much – but does, in the words of The National Law Review, recognise “AI’s simultaneous promises and challenges for future policymakers” and could represent “a notable step towards government adoption of AI” in America.
