Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, and Congressman Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, introduced the AI Leadership to Enable Accountable Deployment (AI LEAD) Act. The bipartisan legislation will help ensure the federal government is prepared to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) safely and effectively by establishing a Chief AI Officer position at every federal agency and creating an interagency council composed of those officers. Companion legislation is led in the Senate by Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX).
“Artificial intelligence is poised to have a profound impact on how the government carries out its mission,” said Connolly. “The federal government needs dedicated leadership to manage the potential disruption, risks, and promise of AI. Our legislation, which I am proud to introduce with Rep. Garbarino, will inject structure and accountability into the government’s management of AI and will ensure that every agency has the leadership in place to oversee the deployment of AI technology in safe and efficient ways.”
“As Chairman of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee, I have been examining the impact of artificial intelligence on national security as it relates to threats against our nation’s critical infrastructure and addressing our cyber workforce challenges. Codifying consistency in AI oversight, usage, and development across government agencies would aid coordination between agencies and ensure government is operating in lockstep in these areas,” said Garbarino. “By establishing Chief AI Officer positions within our agencies and ensuring interagency cooperation on AI, this legislation would go a long way to mitigating the risks and maximizing the opportunities present by AI development and deployment.”
The AI LEAD Act would create a Chief AI Officer position at every federal agency to oversee the agency’s efforts and policies regarding AI. The bill also establishes an interagency Chief AI Officers Council to ensure there is coordination across the federal government on the use of AI. It would also create an AI board of senior officials at each agency to coordinate and integrate AI activities and policy across the agency. Finally, the bill instructs every federal agency to develop an AI strategy and requires the head of every agency to be accountable for ensuring the responsible research, development, acquisition, and use of AI.
Text of the legislation is available here.
