artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already well integrated into the American workforce; in 2022, 19% of American workers were in jobs identified as most exposed to AI, compared to 23% in the least exposed jobs, according to a study by Pew Research. Jobs identified as most exposed are those in which the most critical responsibilities can either be replaced or assisted by AI. In contrast, the least exposed jobs cannot currently be replaced or assisted. A recent study identified U.S. cities at risk of losing jobs to AI, finding more than 10 million jobs at-risk within those cities.

The Biden Administration issued an executive order earlier this week that provides guidance on the safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the U.S. The EO includes guidance for agencies to work to provide new opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs in AI and other directives.

In the absence of cohesive federal policies or regulations involving the growing development and use of artificial intelligence (AI), states’ governors and lawmakers are undertaking studies and crafting legislation that seeks to balance governance and implementation of this evolving technology. The studies and legislation are intended to protect constituents from AI’s possible harms without hindering potential uses or contributions of AI to government services or medical, science, business, and educational advancements.

A memo sent out last week by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy outlines this year’s R&D priorities. Federal science agencies will use this memo to design their budget requests for the fiscal year 2025.

Representatives from leading AI companies (Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI) gathered at the White House on July 21 for the announcement of their voluntary commitment to “help move toward safe, secure, and transparent development of AI technology.” According to a White House statement, the companies have made commitments to ensuring products are safe before introducing them to the public, building systems that put security first, and earn the public’s trust.

Last month, NIH came out with a policy statement that prohibits using generative AI to analyze or critique NIH grant applications and contract proposals. Specifically, as written in NIH Notice NOT-OD-23-149, “NIH prohibits NIH scientific peer reviewers from using natural language processors, large language models, or other generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies for analyzing and formulating peer review critiques for grant applications and R&D contract proposals.” The problem with using generative AI in peer review is that it compromises confidentiality. As expressed in the notice, once information is loaded onto a generative AI platform, “AI tools have no guarantee of where data are being sent, saved, viewed, or used in the future, and thus NIH is revising its Confidentiality Agreements for Peer Reviewers to clarify that reviewers are prohibited from using AI tools in analyzing and critiquing NIH grant applications and R&D contract proposals. Such actions violate NIH’s peer review confidentiality requirements.”

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is expanding a network of research centers across the country to translate university-based R&D into new, and hopefully, better advanced materials. In late June, NSF announced the distribution of $162 million to support the creation of nine more Materials Research Science & Engineering Centers (MRSECs), bringing the total number of centers to twenty. Each of the new centers will receive $18 million over six years.

If a recent forecast from McKinsey & Company is correct, climate change isn’t the only rough ride ahead over the next decade for regional and national economies.

More than 50% of the patents granted in 2020 were related to AI, according to a USPTO report. Considering this large volume of AI-related patents, the office recently sought feedback regarding AI inventorship. Key points made by AUTM, BIO, Google, IBM, and Microsoft are summarized here.

A new fact sheet released today from the White House outlines three recent activities related to artificial intelligence. First, the National Science Foundation is announcing today its latest investments in National AI Research Institutes; the new $140 million across seven awardees brings the total number of institutes funded since 2020 to 25. Second, the administration is supporting an AI “red team” event at DEF CON 31 that intends to have thousands of hackers explore large language models from Google, Open AI, NVIDIA and others. Third, the Office of Management and Budget will release draft policy guidance on the use of AI systems by the federal government this summer.