House approves plan to create AI strategy
The House approved legislation that would set a foundation for a national strategy for emerging artificial intelligence technology.
The United States is a step closer to setting a national strategy to maintain its lead in artificial intelligence technologies.
On Dec. 8, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bipartisan nonbinding resolution to create an AI national strategy. The resolution was backed by Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) who have been pushing Congress for years for more money and resources for AI research and workforce development.
The resolution, said Hurd and Kelly in a joint statement, was crafted with input from industry experts and the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC). The resolution identifies workforce development, national security, research and development and ethical use as key to an AI strategy.
In the statement Hurd likened dominance in emerging technologies such as AI to a "new cold war" in which global leadership is crucial for the U.S. Hurd said it was important to keep the U.S. ahead of Russia and China.
"If we don't take advantage of AI, Mandarin and the yuan -- not English and the dollar -- could dominate the global economy. Vladimir Putin once said that whoever masters AI will master the world. That is why America -- not Russia and not China-- must be at the helm."
The approval of the measure will allow America to take advantage of AI technology "before it takes advantage of us" by setting a path for the next several decades, Hurd and Kelly said in a joint statement.