Young, Cantwell Reintroduce Future of AI Innovation Act

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) reintroduced the Future of AI Innovation Act, legislation to ensure U.S. leadership in the global race to develop artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies.

The legislation promotes strong partnerships between government, business, and academia to advance AI research. It would authorize the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to promote the development of voluntary standards and create testbeds with national labs to accelerate groundbreaking AI innovation for the benefit of future economic growth and national security.

“One of my top priorities for federal AI policy is to ensure these technologies are developed in a manner that reflects American values and supports U.S. innovation. I’m glad to introduce the Future of AI Innovation Act to maintain American leadership in the global race to advance AI,” said Senator Young.

“This legislation brings together private sector and government experts to develop voluntary standards for AI, create new assessment tools, and conduct testing that will ensure the United States leads in AI-driven innovation and competitiveness for decades to come. The NIST Center for AI Standards and Innovation, testbeds at our national labs, and grand challenge prizes will accelerate new advancements while helping companies and consumers better use AI in a safe and secure manner,” said Senator Cantwell.

As foreign adversaries and competitors invest heavily in AI, it’s critical the U.S. maintains our leadership in this space. This legislation builds upon Senators Young and Cantwell’s FUTURE of AI Act in 2020, which created the National AI Advisory Committee (NAIAC), a panel of outside experts who make recommendations to the government on AI. Provisions in the Future of AI Innovation Act were drafted based on recommendations from NAIAC reports.

The new version of this bill reflects priorities outlined in President Trump’s AI Action Plan, as well as the Commerce Department’s pro-innovation rebranding of CAISI.

The Future of AI Innovation Act:

• Authorizes the NIST Center for AI Standards and Innovation to Develop AI Standards: Formally establishes the Center for AI Standards and Innovation at NIST to develop voluntary guidelines and standards with the private sector and federal agencies to promote robust long-term innovation in AI. The Center will develop performance benchmarks, evaluations, and clear transparency documentation standards for AI systems, while helping companies and consumers better understand and use AI tools.
• Creates New AI Testbeds with National Laboratories to Evaluate AI Models and Make Discoveries that Benefit the U.S. Economy: Creates testbed programs between NIST, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE) and the private sector to develop security risk tools and testing environments for companies to evaluate their systems for capabilities and limitations. This bill also authorizes public-private partnership testbeds to create new materials for advanced manufacturing and testbeds to make new scientific discoveries by using AI integrated with emerging technologies, such as quantum hybrid computing and robotics.
• Creates Grand Challenge Prize Competitions to Spur Private Sector AI Solutions and Innovation: Grand challenges elevate and expedite high-priority projects and engage researchers across the country for the benefit of the nation’s competitiveness. The grand challenges would prioritize finding AI solutions through the integration of advanced AI technology and emerging technologies like quantum computing. Grand challenges are aimed at overcoming barriers to the further development of AI and computing, microelectronics, biotechnologies, advanced manufacturing, and other economic priorities like breakthroughs in maritime vessel propulsion systems and border security, including fentanyl and illegal drug detection.
• Accelerates AI Innovation with Publicly Available Datasets: Directs federal science agencies to make curated datasets available for public use to accelerate new advancements in AI applications, including solutions to global challenges in agriculture, medicine, transportation, manufacturing and more. Unlocking datasets will help make discoveries in AI and benefit small and medium businesses that often don’t have access to as much data.
• Creates International Alliances on AI Standards, Research and Development: Forms a coalition with U.S. allies to cooperate on global standards and creates a multilateral research collaboration between scientific and academic institutions across the world to spur AI research and innovation. This collaboration is based on a NAIAC recommendation.

Full text of the legislation can be found here. A full list of supportive organizations can be found here.