Artificial Intelligence for the American People
Introduction
Overview
The age of artificial intelligence (AI) has arrived, and is transforming everything from healthcare to transportation to manufacturing.
America has long been the global leader in this new era of AI, and is poised to maintain this leadership going forward because of our strong innovation ecosystem. Realizing the full potential of AI for the Nation requires the combined efforts of industry, academia, and government. The Administration has been active in developing policies and implementing strategies that accelerate AI innovation in the U.S. for the benefit of the American people. These activities align with several areas of emphasis: AI for American Innovation, AI for American Industry, AI for the American Worker, and AI with American Values. This AI.gov website provides a portal for exploring these activities in more depth, and serves as a resource for those who want to learn more about how to take full advantage of the opportunities of AI.
“Continued American leadership in Artificial Intelligence is of paramount importance to maintaining the economic and national security of the United States.”
– President Donald J. Trump
05 AI with American Values
The United States has long been a champion and defender of the core values of freedom, guarantees of human rights, the rule of law, stability in our institutions, rights to privacy, respect for intellectual property, and opportunities to all to pursue their dreams. The AI technologies we develop must also reflect these fundamental American values and our devotion to helping people. Our goal is to ensure that AI technologies are understandable, trustworthy, robust, and safe. In addition, the broader impacts of AI on society must be considered, including implications for the workforce and assurances that AI will be developed responsibly. The United States is actively addressing these challenges through R&D programs and engagement with the broad stakeholder communities, including international discussions on AI development. As part of the American AI Initiative, Federal agencies will foster public trust in AI systems by establishing guidance for AI development and use across different types of technology and industrial sectors. In addition to the national strategy, the White House in January 2020 proposed guidance for the regulation of AI applications, which will help Federal regulatory agencies develop and maintain approaches for the safe and trustworthy creation and adoption of new AI technologies without stifling innovation.
As new AI technologies are created, we must also increase our understanding of how AI systems derive solutions, and why they make the decisions they make. An important R&D emphasis is on providing AI with explainability mechanisms that help human users understand reasons for AI outputs. DARPA’s Explainable AI (XAI) program aims to create machine learning techniques that produce more explainable solutions while maintaining high performance and appropriate levels of trust in the system. NSF’s Program on Fairness in Artificial Intelligence in Collaboration with Amazon will fund research on fairness in AI, with the goal of contributing to trustworthy AI systems that are readily accepted and deployed to tackle grand challenges facing society.
Robust and safe AI
The complexity of many AI systems creates important safety and security challenges that must be addressed to ensure that these systems are trustworthy. In particular, AI systems have some inherent cybersecurity risks because of the characteristics of how the technology is designed. R&D investments such as DARPA’s AI Next Campaign will create solutions for countering adversarial attacks on AI technologies, such as those that attempt to contaminate training data, modify algorithms, create adversarial inputs, or exploit flaws in AI system goals. This research is expected to lead to more secure, robust, and safe AI systems that are reliable and trustworthy.
Workforce impacts
Rapid progress in the development of AI technologies has many potential benefits, including the creation of new industries and occupations, increased opportunities for innovation, and increased productivity. However, these technologies are changing the nature of work, and have caused some concerns about the possibility of lost jobs, or the mismatch between available occupations and the skills of the workforce. Our strategy for AI and the American Worker provides educational and training opportunities that help the workforce thrive in the new economy. Beyond the immediate educational need, however, is the need to look forward to better understand the changing landscape of jobs and work. NSF is responding to this need by focusing R&D on convergent research on The Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier. This research will help us better understand the human-technology partnership and the emerging socio-technological landscape, create new technologies to augment human performance, and foster livelong and pervasive learning with technology.
International Leadership on AI
The Trump Administration is committed to promoting an international environment that supports AI R&D and opens markets for American AI industries while also ensuring that the technology is developed in a manner consistent with our Nation’s values and interests. International engagement with likeminded partners is a key pillar of the American AI Initiative and the U.S. strategy for AI leadership.
The United States is leading in a number of international activities that promote trust in and adoption of AI technologies.
In September 2020, the Trump Administration announced the signing of the Declaration of the United States and the United Kingdom on Cooperation in AI R&D. The cooperation agreement between the two nations includes recommending priorities for future cooperation in R&D, promoting researcher and student collaborations, and fostering public-private partnerships.
In May 2020, the United States led the G7 Science and Technology Ministerial Meeting where the United States and G7 partners agreed to launch the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI)—an international and multistakeholder initiative to encourage the development of AI in line with our shared values and contribute to the responsible development and use of AI.
In May 2019, the United States joined with other OECD countries to advance common AI principles, outlined in the Recommendation on AI. This recommendation formalizes principles for the innovative and trustworthy development and application of AI, marking the first time that the United States and like-minded democracies have committed to common AI principles. These principles reflect many of the priorities championed by the American AI Initiative—priorities like removing barriers to innovation and discovery, prioritizing long-term R&D, building the AI workforce, and fostering public trust. In June 2019, the G20 also adopted these principles, expanding their impact around the world.
In 2018, OSTP led the U.S. delegation to the 2018 G7 Innovation Ministerial, which resulted in a joint Statement on Artificial Intelligence, recognizing “the interconnected relationship between supporting economic growth from AI innovation; increasing trust in and adoption of AI; and promoting inclusivity in AI development and deployment.”
In 2017, OSTP also led the US delegation to the G7 “ICT and Industry Ministerial”, which resulted in an outcome document on AI that recognizes that “the rapid advancement of AI technologies has the potential to bring immense benefits to our economies and societies.”
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“For the first time in history, America and likeminded democracies of the world will commit to common AI principles reflecting our shared values and priorities. These principles send a strong message: The OECD countries stand together in unleashing AI innovation, understanding that it is an essential tool to drive economic growth, empower workers, and lift up quality of life for all.”
Michael Kratsios, Deputy Assistant to the President for Technology Policy
2020 G7 Science and Technology Minister’s Declaration
2019 G7 Strategy on Digital Transformation