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
01 Executive Order on AI
On February 11, 2019, President Trump signed Executive Order 13859 announcing the American AI Initiative — the United States’ national strategy on artificial intelligence. This strategy is a concerted effort to promote and protect national AI technology and innovation. The Initiative implements a whole-of-government strategy in collaboration and engagement with the private sector, academia, the public, and like-minded international partners. It directs the Federal government to pursue five pillars for advancing AI: (1) invest in AI research and development (R&D), (2) unleash AI resources, (3) remove barriers to AI innovation, (4) train an AI-ready workforce, and (5) promote an international environment that is supportive of American AI innovation and its responsible use. The U.S. is also actively leveraging AI to help the Federal government work smarter in its own services and missions in trustworthy ways.
In February 2020, the White House released the American Artificial Intelligence Initiative: Year One Annual Report. In the year since the AI Executive Order was signed, the Administration called for record amounts of AI R&D investment, led the development of the first international statement on AI Principles, issued the first-ever strategy for engagement in AI technical standards, published the first-ever reporting of government-wide non-defense AI R&D spending, and released the first-ever AI regulatory document for the trustworthy development, testing, deployment, and adoption of AI technologies.
Summary of the AI Executive Order
Op-Ed on the AI Executive Order
White House Summit on AI in Government
In September 2019, The White House hosted the Summit on Artificial Intelligence in Government to spark ideas for how the Federal government can adopt AI to better achieve its mission and improve services to the American people. Over 175 leaders and experts from government, industry, and academia came together to identify best practices in the use of AI, opportunities to foster collaborative partnerships, and ways to develop a Federal AI workforce. The Summit highlighted innovative efforts at Federal agencies that have already adopted AI, and looked ahead to future transformative AI applications that will make government more effective, efficient, and responsive.
An AI pilot project featured at this Summit by the Department of Health and Human Services led to a new effort announced by GSA to assist Federal agencies in using AI to conduct regulatory review and improve the rule-making process.
Accelerating the adoption of AI in government, the General Service Administration (GSA) launched the AI Center of Excellence in September 2019, along with the AI Community of Practice soon thereafter. These efforts are supporting and coordinating the use of AI in the Federal agencies, helping to deploy scalable solutions and facilitating the sharing of best practices and tools for AI adoption.
In December 2020, the President signed Executive Order 13960 on Promoting the Use of Trustworthy AI in the Federal Government, which establishes guidance for Federal agency adoption of AI to more effectively deliver services to the American people and foster public trust in this critical technology. This EO defines principles for the use of AI in Government, establishes a common policy for implementing the principles, directs agencies to catalogue their AI use cases, and calls on GSA and the Office of Personnel Management to enhance AI implementation expertise at the agencies.
Summary of 2019 White House Summit on AI in Government
White House Summit on AI for American Industry
In May 2018, The White House hosted the Summit on Artificial Intelligence for American Industry to discuss the promise of AI and the policies needed to realize that promise for the American people and maintain U.S. leadership in the age of AI. The summit brought together over 100 senior government officials, technical experts from top academic institutions, heads of industrial research labs, and American business leaders who are adopting AI technologies to benefit their customers, workers, and shareholders. At this summit, participants engaged in two sets of breakout sessions focused on cross-cutting issues such as AI R&D, workforce development, regulatory barriers to AI innovation, and sector-specific applications of AI.
Summary of 2018 White House Summit on AI for American Industry