Are any federal government leaders officially in charge of AI? Not yet. But if Congress does its job, there could be some AI leaders in place soon. Well, maybe not soon, but eventually.
Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, and Congressman Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, have introduced the AI Leadership to Enable Accountable Deployment (AI LEAD) Act.
The bipartisan legislation establishes a Chief AI Officer position at every federal agency. The bill also creates an interagency council composed of those officers. Companion legislation is led in the Senate by Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX).
In his press release, Rep. Connolly commented, “Artificial intelligence is poised to have a profound impact on how the government carries out its mission. The federal government needs dedicated leadership to manage the potential disruption, risks, and promise of AI. Our legislation, which I am proud to introduce with Rep. Garbarino, will inject structure and accountability into the government’s management of AI and will ensure that every agency has the leadership in place to oversee the deployment of AI technology in safe and efficient ways.”
In addition to creating a Chief AI Officer at every federal agency, the AI LEAD Act would also create an AI board of senior officials to coordinate and integrate AI activities and policy. And the bill would instruct every federal agency to develop an AI strategy and require the head of every agency to be accountable for ensuring the responsible research, development, acquisition, and use of AI.
The full text of the AI Leadership bill is available here.