On Wednesday, 24 members of Congress released a report on efforts to develop a vision for the United States for responsible artificial intelligence innovation that takes into account appropriate guardrails to protect against current and emerging threats.
Based on 66 important studies, lawmakers said they are building a “carefully designed” approach based on an approach that balances innovation while protecting Americans from potential harm under widespread adoption of AI. It offered 89 recommendations to build a “durable policy framework.”
While far from a final word from Congress on AI issues, lawmakers said their findings and recommendations should be seen as a tool to identify and evaluate future AI policy proposals.
“It is unreasonable to expect Congress to enact legislation this year that could be the last word on AI policy,” the lawmakers said in the report.
Instead, Congress should adopt “an agile approach that benefits from all available evidence and insight and responds in an appropriate, targeted and achievable manner.”
For the United States to lead in AI development and advance a global vision for AI public policy, lawmakers must “regularly assess policy effectiveness and adapt policies as AI technologies and their impact evolve.” We must continue to learn about AI in order to update it, they said. In the new blueprint.
The AI task force, launched in February, includes 12 Republicans and 12 Democrats, with co-chairs Rep. Jay Obanolte (R-Calif.) and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) lead. Lawmakers said in their 253-page report that they regularly convene to gather input on AI issues from more than 100 experts from industry, government, civil society and academia.
The overarching policy goals are to identify the novelty of AI problems, foster AI innovation, protect against AI risks and harms, empower governments with AI, affirm the use of sector-specific regulatory structures, and The idea is to take a step-by-step approach and keep humans at the center of AI policy. to the report.
Provides recommendations for government use of AI. Federal preemption of state law. Data privacy. National security. Research, development and standards. civil rights and civil liberties. Education and workforce. Intellectual property; authenticity of content on open and closed AI systems. Energy usage and power grid reliability. SMEs and specific sectors (agriculture, healthcare, financial services).
Lawmakers also support sector-specific policies for an agile and focused approach to AI policy, leveraging sector-specific regulatory expertise within federal agencies and other branches of government to build on existing authorities. He also stated that he supports the use of AI in the field by utilizing the following.
“This will enable more informed and efficient collaboration between federal agencies and entities that use AI,” the lawmakers said. “Agency expertise should continue to focus where it can have the most impact.”
In addition to support for sector-specific regulation of AI, it also calls for increased federal investment in AI hardware, algorithmic efficiency, energy technology development, and scientific research that enables innovation in energy infrastructure.
Regulators would also benefit from leveraging a federal repository of AI resources, such as AI-enabled data and computing hardware, the lawmakers said. Therefore, they expressed the federal government’s continued investment in research and development.
“Congress should continue federal research and development efforts, support AI evaluation, and strengthen U.S. AI standardization efforts,” the lawmakers said.
To protect civil rights, the lawmakers recommended giving sector regulators “the tools and expertise to address AI-related risks in their sectors.”
Regarding the healthcare sector, he acknowledged that AI technology has the potential to improve various aspects of healthcare research, diagnosis, and care delivery.
“AI can rapidly analyze large data sets, improve diagnostic accuracy, streamline operations, and automate routine tasks. All of this can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of treatments and improve healthcare This could reduce the burden on workers and free up more time to care for patients,” the bipartisan AI Task Force found.
However, they warned that the continued evolution of AI capabilities and their integration into critical health systems also raises new policy questions.
“The most prominent challenges include data availability and quality, incomplete or inaccurate responses, non-personalized recommendations, transparency in decision-making, data privacy and cybersecurity, and gaps between existing systems and AI. These include interoperability, liability for errors caused or enabled by AI models, and biased decision-making. “Creating these models in a way that promotes economic profit over patient care and safety. and expand,” they said.
Their main findings for the healthcare sector are:
The use of AI in healthcare has the potential to reduce administrative burden and speed drug development and clinical diagnosis. The lack of ubiquitous and uniform standards for health data and algorithms hinders system interoperability and data sharing.
Their recommendations for the healthcare sector include:
Encourage the practices necessary to ensure the safety, transparency, and effectiveness of AI in healthcare. Maintain strong support for healthcare research related to AI. Create incentives and guidance to support AI adoption and encourage risk management of AI technologies in healthcare across a variety of deployment conditions to improve privacy, strengthen security, and prevent disparate health outcomes . Help develop standards for liability related to AI issues. Support appropriate payment mechanisms without stifling innovation.
The bipartisan Congressional Blueprint on AI includes a complete overview of federal research and development efforts on AI, and the House of Representatives, which encourages lawmakers and future Congresses to continue exploring 15 AI-related opportunities and challenges. It also includes a number of resources, including a list of task forces. , an overview of the adoption and use of AI in different medical modalities.
Rapid progress could transform the economy and national security, so Congressional leaders developed a task force to create a policy roadmap.
“Creating a bipartisan vision for AI adoption, innovation, and governance will not be an easy task, but as we look to the future of AI and ensure that Americans move away from this technology,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement this week. This is necessary if we are to receive the true benefits.” .
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries added, “Members of the bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence have worked diligently over the past year to produce a serious, calm, and substantive report.” . “We are encouraged by the completion of the report and hope it will help inform future legislative action.”
Andrea Fox is a senior editor at Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
