House bill looks to expand Energy’s AI research and development
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Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., said the bipartisan proposal would “position the Department of Energy to develop high-performance platforms, responsibly cultivate training data and improve energy efficiency to support safe AI innovation.”
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced legislation on Wednesday seeking to enhance the Department of Energy’s artificial intelligence research and development efforts.
The bill — sponsored by Reps. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y., and Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore. — would provide Energy with additional funding and updated guidance to pursue AI testing activities that were not previously codified into law.
The legislation would amend provisions of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which established an artificial intelligence research program within Energy. The new proposal, in part, would direct the department to establish partnerships with outside nonprofits and private firms to collaborate on AI-related innovation.
The lawmakers said in a press release that their bill would authorize Energy’s Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence for Science, Security and Technology initiative, which is a collaboration between the department and its 17 National Laboratories. Energy has called this program an effort “to build the world's most powerful integrated scientific AI systems for science, energy and national security.”
Bonamici said the legislation would “position the Department of Energy to develop high-performance platforms, responsibly cultivate training data and improve energy efficiency to support safe AI innovation.”
The bill would authorize the department to take additional research steps, including establishing “at least one data center testbed for the development and assessment of hardware and algorithms for energy-efficient and energy-flexible artificial intelligence training and inference.”
In addition to laying the framework for Energy’s continued AI research and testing, the new language would authorize “$300,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2030” to help the department achieve its goals.
Within one year of the bill’s enactment, the Energy secretary would also be directed to submit a report to Congress assessing, in part, “the growth of computing data centers and advanced computing electrical power” across the country and “potential risks of growth in computing centers or growth in the required electrical power to United States energy security and national security.”
The report would also have to include recommendations regarding policy changes needed “to ensure domestic deployment of data center and advanced computing resources” and capabilities that the department can offer “to promote access to energy resources by data centers, advanced computing hardware and algorithms and artificial intelligence systems.”
In a statement, Williams said that Congress “must utilize every resource available to develop newer, stronger, safer tech which, in turn, will spur advances in national security, energy-efficiency, manufacturing and more.”
The House lawmakers’ proposal is similar to legislation introduced in July by Sens. Joe Manchin, I-W.V., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, which would also authorize the Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence for Science, Security and Technology initiative.