The bipartisan Senate AI Task Force, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), released a comprehensive roadmap for AI policy titled “Driving American innovation in artificial intelligence.” This broad roadmap is a call to action to Congress, federal agencies, and the private sector to drive progress and address the risks posed by artificial intelligence.
The roadmap is the culmination of more than 50 hearings and nine Insight Forums with input from more than 150 industry experts (including Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, and CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, among others) focused on problem solving. potential impacts of AI.
The main takeaways are:
- Increased funding for AI research and development
- Bipartisan Collaboration on AI Legislation
- Reduction in job losses thanks to advances in AI
- Maintaining and Advancing U.S. Superiority in AI Technologies for National Security
- Maintaining election integrity in the face of AI
- Protecting children from harm posed by AI and social media
At the outset, the roadmap calls for robust investments in AI research and development, setting a goal for the Executive Branch and the Senate Appropriations Committee to reach the level of AI “as soon as possible.” spending $32 billion a year on non-funding. innovation in defense AI proposed by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI). The roadmap is divided into eight main sections that lay the foundation for future legislation and private sector action.
Supporting American innovation in AI: The roadmap calls for increased federal spending to fund “an intergovernmental AI research and development (R&D) effort, including relevant infrastructure that spans the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Commerce (DOC ), the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and all other relevant agencies and departments. These expenditures include full funding from the CHIPS and Science Act (PL 117-167) as well as DOC, DOE, NSF, and the Department of Defense to support semiconductor R&D specific to software and hardware. Cutting-edge AI.
AI and the workforce: The Roadmap recognizes that “workers from all backgrounds, from blue-collar positions to senior management, are concerned about the potential for AI to impact their jobs…including the potential displacement of workers “. Thus, the Road Map calls on the relevant committees to “ensure that American workers are not left behind” by developing legislation relating to “the training, retraining and development of the sector’s workforce private sector so that it can successfully participate in an AI-based economy.
High-impact uses of AI: The roadmap identifies high-impact uses of AI and acknowledges concerns about AI “black boxes” that “raise questions about whether companies with such systems are properly complying with existing laws” . A matter of concern, as we discussed in our previous alert With regard to Senate Bill 5351, covered are entities that integrate artificial intelligence systems into decision-making processes. The task force “believes that existing laws, including those related to consumer protection and civil rights, must apply consistently and effectively to AI systems and their developers, deployers, and users.” Thus, the Roadmap encourages committees to “consider identifying any gaps in the application of existing laws to AI systems that fall within the jurisdiction of their committees and, if necessary, develop legislative language to fill these shortcomings”. The roadmap also highlights the particular vulnerability of children and the risks posed by AI and social media. The working group encourages committees to “develop legislation to combat online child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including ensuring that existing protections specifically cover AI-generated CSAM,” and particularly encourages consideration of legislation to address issues surrounding so-called “deepfakes.”
Elections and democracy: The working group recognizes the risks that AI poses to the integrity of elections. During the 2020 and 2024 election cycles, voters complained about widespread AI robocalls impersonating candidates. For example, during the 2024 New Hampshire primary, an AI-generated depiction of President Joe Biden called on voters encouraging them to “save your vote” and therefore not vote in the primary. Thus, the roadmap “encourages relevant committees and AI developers and deployers to advance effective watermarking and digital content provenance with respect to AI-generated or augmented election content.” The roadmap calls on AI deployers and content providers to “implement robust protections ahead of the next election to mitigate AI-generated content that is objectively false, while protecting the rights of the former amendment”.
Confidentiality and liability: Recognizing that rapid technological advancements and varying degrees of autonomy of AI systems present challenges in assigning responsibilities to AI companies and users, the task force encourages “relevant committees to consider whether it There is a need to put in place additional standards, or clarify existing standards, to hold AI developers and deployers accountable if their products or actions cause harm to consumers, or hold end users responsible if their actions cause harm.
Transparency, explainability, intellectual property and copyright: Recognizing that advances in AI go hand in hand with intellectual property, the Roadmap encourages review of existing and upcoming reports from the US Copyright Office and the US Patent and Trademark Office on the impact of AI on intellectual property law. The road map encourages the committees to “take actions deemed appropriate to ensure that the United States continues to lead the world on this front,” including considering “federal policy issues related to the data sets used by AI developers to train their models.”
Protecting yourself against AI-related risks: The working group, inspired by “insights provided by experts in forums on a variety of risks that different AI systems can present,” encourages companies to “conduct detailed testing and evaluation to understand the full range of potential harm and not releasing AI systems that cannot meet industry standards. The roadmap further encourages committees to “study the policy implications of different product launch choices for AI systems,” and places a particular burden on committees to “understand the differences between closed models and fully open source” and to develop an analytical framework that “specifies what circumstances would justify a requirement for assessment prior to deployment of AI models.”
National security: National security is a top concern of the task force and the roadmap encourages DOD and other agencies to “develop career pathways and training programs for digital engineering, particularly in AI,” encouraging DOD, DOE, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. to “work with commercial AI developers to prevent large language models and other cutting-edge AI models from inadvertently disclosing or reconstructing sensitive or classified information.”
In conclusion, the roadmap highlights the need for continued collaboration between congressional committees and the executive branch, emphasizing the importance of a well-coordinated approach to AI policy and legislation to ensure that the United States remains at the forefront of AI innovation while effectively managing its risks. .
The roadmap highlights the need for continued collaboration between Congress and the executive branch, emphasizing the importance of a well-coordinated approach to AI policy and legislation to ensure the United States remains at the forefront of AI innovation while effectively managing its risks.
