Thank you all for joining us at this markup. We’re here today to consider nine bills on the development and use of artificial intelligence.
As Speaker Johnson said when he launched the bipartisan AI Task Force earlier this year, our challenge is to encourage innovation, maintain our competitive edge, protect our national security, and ensure safe and trustworthy technology.
These bills take valuable steps to expand the use of AI, develop a skilled AI workforce, and improve our tools for AI research and development.
They don’t impose regulations and burdensome requirements. Instead, they’re designed to help American businesses and workers and to keep us at the cutting edge of global competition.
The first bill we’ll consider is H.R. 9197, the Small Business Artificial Intelligence Advancement Act, sponsored by Representatives Collins and Stevens.
Small businesses are the engine that drives the American economy. AI has the potential to be a valuable tool for these companies, who could use it to increase efficiency and improve their services.
This bill directs NIST to develop resources specifically for small businesses, helping them to better understand and utilize AI systems.
Next up we have H.R. 9194, the Nucleic Acid Screening for Biosecurity Act, sponsored by Representatives Caraveo and McCormick. The synthetic production of nucleic acids like RNA and DNA has helped us make great strides in health care, agricultural production, and biofuels development.
AI is revolutionizing how we synthesize these molecules, which presents a challenge in how we screen for and manage nucleic acids.
This bill improves best practices and standards for biosecurity measures related to nucleic acids, ensuring our screening tools keep pace with AI-powered developments.
The next bill before us is H.R. 9211, the LIFT AI Act, sponsored by Representatives Kean and Amo. This is a straightforward bill that authorizes the National Science Foundation (NSF) to award grants for research on AI literacy to prepare our K-12 students for careers in AI-powered industries. It’s a critical first step in developing our AI workforce.
H.R. 9215, sponsored by Ranking Member Lofgren and myself, is also designed to expand our AI workforce.
The Workforce for AI Trust Act leverages existing programs at NSF and NIST to help us develop a multidisciplinary workforce that integrates a broad range of skills and backgrounds to advance AI technologies.
H.R. 9402, the NSF AI Education Act, sponsored by Representatives Fong and Salinas, also aims to build out our AI workforce. It does so by supporting scholarships and fellowships to students studying AI, and by creating Centers of AI Excellence at community colleges and technical schools.
The next bill we’ll consider is H.R. 9403, which I’m cosponsoring with Representative Foushee. The Expanding AI Voices Act ensures that research and development in AI isn’t confined to the top 100 research universities.
We know that to stay competitive, we need to draw on the skills of students from every zip code. This bill will expand opportunities for AI research and help strengthen our workforce.
Our next bill is H.R. 5077, the CREATE AI Act, sponsored by Representatives Eshoo and McCaul. This bill provides legislative authorization for the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR).
The NAIRR has been operating as a pilot program since January, with the goal of connecting researchers to the data and resources necessary to conduct advanced AI research. By authorizing the NAIRR we are ensuring this valuable research can continue.
Next we have H.R. 9497, the AI Advancement and Reliability Act, sponsored by our two AI Task Force Chairs, Representatives Obernolte and Lieu.
This bill establishes a Center for AI Advancement and Reliability to research AI robustness, resilience, and safety. This will help us establish standards and best practices that can ensure global AI development reflects our values.
Finally, we will consider H.R. 9466, the AI Development Practices Act, sponsored by Representatives Baird and Lieu.
To facilitate innovation in AI, we need a standard way of communicating important characteristics of AI systems.
In the same way that nutrition labels quickly convey standardized information about food, this bill would create a way to share standard information about an AI system’s creation process, training data, performance, and risks.
This will facilitate collaboration and make it easier to understand AI systems.
These bipartisan bills provide strong support for advancing AI, and I’d like to thank my colleagues for their work on them.
I’m looking forward to a productive markup.
I now recognize the Ranking Member for her opening statement.