Lewis-Burke has provided campus with a report about the Senate Bipartisan Artificial Intelligence (AI) Working Group which has released its long-awaited AI roadmap. The roadmap, called Driving U.S. Innovation in Artificial Intelligence, aims to provide direction to congressional Committees in shaping AI policy and future legislation and calls for a $32 billion investment in non-defense AI research and development (R&D) each year. The proposed funding level would be a huge boost in funding compared to current funding levels. Projected federal non-defense spending in AI in fiscal year (FY) 2024 is only $2.4 billion. To boost funding in AI, the Working Group recommends that the Senate Appropriations Committee prioritize funding for AI in FY 2025 appropriations, even under budget caps, and also work on a supplemental spending bill to further close the gap. The Senate has started preliminary discussions exploring a supplemental spending package that would appropriate $32 billion for AI that key federal agencies could spend over five years, similar to the approach taken for semiconductor investments in the CHIPS and Science Act
May 17, 2024