Legislation proposes voluntary standards, testing frameworks, and evaluation tools for AI labs
On Monday, Representatives Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Jay Obernolte (R-CA) introduced the American Leadership in AI Act, a bill addressing a wide range of AI policy issues, including AI standards and evaluation, research infrastructure, government procurement, AI education and training, whistleblower protections, and AI deepfakes. The bill incorporates some recommendations from last Congress’s bipartisan AI Task Force.
“This is a thoughtful proposal for accelerating American innovation, providing critical resources and infrastructure to maintain U.S. leadership in AI,” said ARI President Brad Carson. “It’s also important to note that the American Leadership in AI Act is not a justification for the preemption of state laws. The White House and the tech industry are furiously lobbying Congress for a bill that would preempt and replace state laws with a set of merely voluntary commitments. The national infrastructure proposed by Reps. Lieu and Obernolte includes strong ideas for responsible governance, but it’s not a replacement for state laws that protect the public from AI harms. If this is the prologue for a national AI framework, then Act I needs to be mandatory testing and evaluation, not preemption.”
The American Leadership in AI Act includes bipartisan proposals that would:
- Codify the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) with $10 million in appropriations
- Codify the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR), a system that provides researchers and students access to computational resources and AI-ready datasets
- Modernize federal AI governance and AI procurement
- Create an AI Workforce Research Hub
- Establish protections for whistleblowers in the AI industry
- Provide legal remedies for deepfake victims and increase penalties for AI fraud and impersonation
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Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to policy advocacy in the public interest, focused on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Learn more at ARI.us.