The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) within the Department of Commerce, https://www.nist.gov is an important player in AI, since the NIST laboratories touch many sectors including healthcare.
NIST held a meeting June 5, 2018 for the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), which met at NIST headquarters to discuss and give their perspective on Administration activities related to AI.
Jim Kurose, Assistant Director for AI within the Office of Science and Technology Policy https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp, spoke at the meeting and provided further details on the topics that the new Interagency Select Committee on AI is going to discuss at their meetings.
He explained that the Interagency Subcommittee on AI will be advising the White House on AI R&D priorities to include such ideas as creating Federal partnerships with industry and academia, establishing structures to improve government planning and coordination of AI R&D, and to further identify how to leverage Federal data and computational resources to support the AI R&D ecosystem.
NIST is planning to build new AI and data methods by developing curated datasets and performance metrics to train, test, and quantify the AI system. The agency also plans to demonstrate the applications for data and AI techniques that could be used to possibly solve research problems.
Also, several actions have taken place on Capitol Hill. Representative Brenda L. Lawrence https://lawrence.house.gov on June 20, 2018 introduced the “Artificial Intelligence Reporting (AIR) Act of 2018” to allow for MLAI established by the National Science and Technology Council to submit an annual report to Congress.
On June 22, 2018, Representative Elise Stefanik https://stefanik.house.gov Chair of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, hosted a closed subcommittee roundtable on AI with experts and industry experts invested in AI. The roundtable discussed Representative Stefanik’s advocacy for increased investment and stronger DOD oversight of AI technologies.
Earlier this year, she introduced the “National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence Act of 2018”, which would create an independent National Security Commission on AI. This legislation was included in FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act which was overwhelmingly passed by the House.