Trump Administration Updates the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and Adds New Strategic Area of Focus

In 2016, the Obama administration released the first National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan. The plan was released to help provide a roadmap for federal agencies to develop new programs that would support this burgeoning technology, and to shape their budgets accordingly.

The original plan revolved around seven key focus areas, referred to as “strategies”:

• Make long-term investments in AI research;
• Develop effective methods for human-AI collaboration;
• Understand and address the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI;
• Ensure the safety and security of AI systems;
• Develop shared public datasets and environments for AI training and testing;
• Measure and evaluate AI technologies through standards and benchmarks; and
• Better understand the national AI R&D workforce needs.

Recently, the White House released updates to the plan, which include the addition of a new strategy:

• Expand public-private partnerships to accelerate advances in AI

These updates stem from President Trump’s Executive Order issued earlier this year that called for the establishment of the American Artificial Intelligence Initiative to provide federal agencies with guidance in prioritizing artificial intelligence (AI) research and development (R&D).

“The landscape for AI R&D is becoming increasingly complex due to the significant investments being made by industry, academia and non-profit organizations, and AI advancements are progressing rapidly,” Michael Kratsios, deputy U.S. chief technology officer, noted in the report. “The federal government must therefore continually reevaluate its priorities for AI R&D investments to ensure that investments continue to advance the cutting edge of the field and are not duplicative of industry investments.” 

Along with the addition of a new strategy, the revised plan also updates the original strategies, taking into account the scientific advances that have occurred, along with the current technological climate.

To view the updated strategy, click here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/National-AI-Research-and-Development-Strategic-Plan-2019-Update-June-2019.pdf