INDIANAPOLIS – The United States should invest billions of dollars into artificial intelligence (AI) to check China’s influence on the technology, U.S. Sen. Todd Young (R-Indiana) and three others said last week.
“Our goal is to maintain U.S. leadership in this field. We lead the way right now,” Young said.
He’s one of four members of the Bipartisan Senate AI Working Group, which released a policy “roadmap” for congressional committees to use in devising both AI innovation incentives and regulations. It’ll take at least $32 billion annually, the group announced. That’s not including yet-to-be-announced defense spending estimates.
With “general direction” and “regulatory certainty” out to AI developers and users, Young said, the country could “unlock” AI’s potential and “harmonize” with ally countries.
“We’ll share (U.S.) standards as it relates to privacy, consumer protection, openness, transparency: all, notably, things that are not associated with the Chinese Communist Party,” Young continued.
The National Security Commission recommended the funding levels for AI and would ramp up across several years: $8 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, $16 billion in FY 2025, and $32 billion in FY 2026 and beyond.
The non-partisan U.S. Senate AI Working Group includes Young, Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico), Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota, and Chuck Schumer (D-New York).
Young, who resides in Johnson County, was a U.S. Congressperson for Indiana’s 9th District before being elected as the Hoosier state’s senior Senator in 2016.
Read the group’s plan and the whole Leslie Bonilla Muñiz story for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, here.
