President Trump issued an Executive Order on February 11, 2019, entitled “Maintaining American Leadership In Artificial Intelligence”. The full text is at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-maintaining-american-leadership-artificial-intelligence/The American AI Initiative of course needs analysis and implementation details. Two sections of the Executive Order give hope for opportunities to provide public input:
Sec (5)(a)(1)(i): Within 90 days of the date of this order, the OMB Director shall publish a notice in the Federal Register inviting the public to identify additional requests for access or quality improvements for Federal data and models that would improve AI R&D and testing. …[T]hese actions by OMB will help to identify datasets that will facilitate non-Federal AI R&D and testing.
and
Sec (6)(b)
(b) To help ensure public trust in the development and implementation of AI applications, OMB shall issue a draft version of the memorandum for public comment before it is finalized.
Please stay tuned for ways that our ACM US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) can help us provide our feedback on the implementation of the Executive Order.
A summary and analysis report is available from the Center for Data Innovation: Executive Order Will Help Ensure U.S. Leadership in AI. They comment that the administration “needs to do more than reprogram existing funds for AI research, skill development, and infrastructure development” and “should ask Congress for significant funding increases to (a) expand these research efforts;
(b) implement light-touch regulation for AI;
(c) resist calls to implement roadblocks or speed bumps for this technology, including export restrictions;
(d) rapidly expand adoption of AI within government,
implement comprehensive reforms to the nation’s workforce training and adjustment policies.”
The latter point was a topic in my invited talk at EAAI-19. Opportunities and innovation in education and training for the workforce of the future rely crucially on public policymaking about workers in the era of increasing use of AI and other automation technologies. An important issue is who will provide training that is timely (by 2030), practical, and affordable for workers who are impacted by job disruptions and transitioning to the new predicted post-automation jobs. The stakeholders along with workers are the schools, employers, unions, community groups, and others. Even if more jobs are created than lost, work in the AI future is disproportionately available in the range of people in the current and near-future workforce.
Section 1 of the Executive Order “Maintaining American Leadership In Artificial Intelligence” follows:
Section 1. Policy and Principles.Artificial Intelligence (AI) promises to drive growth of the United States economy, enhance our economic and national security, and improve our quality of life. The United States is the world leader in AI research and development (R&D) and deployment. Continued American leadership in AI is of paramount importance to maintaining the economic and national security of the United States and to shaping the global evolution of AI in a manner consistent with our Nation’s values, policies, and priorities. The Federal Government plays an important role in facilitating AI R&D, promoting the trust of the American people in the development and deployment of AI-related technologies, training a workforce capable of using AI in their occupations, and protecting the American AI technology base from attempted acquisition by strategic competitors and adversarial nations. Maintaining American leadership in AI requires a concerted effort to promote advancements in technology and innovation, while protecting American technology, economic and national security, civil liberties, privacy, and American values and enhancing international and industry collaboration with foreign partners and allies. It is the policy of the United States Government to sustain and enhance the scientific, technological, and economic leadership position of the United States in AI R&D and deployment through a coordinated Federal Government strategy, the American AI Initiative (Initiative), guided by five principles:
(a) The United States must drive technological breakthroughs in AI across the Federal Government, industry, and academia in order to promote scientific discovery, economic competitiveness, and national security.
(b) The United States must drive development of appropriate technical standards and reduce barriers to the safe testing and deployment of AI technologies in order to enable the creation of new AI-related industries and the adoption of AI by today’s industries.
(c) The United States must train current and future generations of American workers with the skills to develop and apply AI technologies to prepare them for today’s economy and jobs of the future.
(d) The United States must foster public trust and confidence in AI technologies and protect civil liberties, privacy, and American values in their application in order to fully realize the potential of AI technologies for the American people.
(e) The United States must promote an international environment that supports American AI research and innovation and opens markets for American AI industries, while protecting our technological advantage in AI and protecting our critical AI technologies from acquisition by strategic competitors and adversarial nations.