A quartet of US senators have released an AI legislation roadmap that calls for billions of dollars in research funding, but largely kicks the can dow

US senators' AI roadmap aims for $32b in R&D spending

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2024-05-16 00:00:11

A quartet of US senators have released an AI legislation roadmap that calls for billions of dollars in research funding, but largely kicks the can down the road on determining federal AI legislation.

The Driving US Innovation in Artificial Intelligence proposal [PDF] calls for as much as $32 billion per year to be spent on non-defense AI innovation. Led by Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Todd Young (R-IN), Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Mike Rounds (R-SD), said the funding would be phased in over a number of years.

But that $32b figure isn't too far down the road - the roadmap said the senators concurred with the funding proposal put forward in 2021 by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which recommended $32b in non-defense funding by the 2026 financial year, which begins in September. That leaves little time to allocate such a huge chunk of funding.

"Harnessing the potential of AI demands an all-hands-on-deck approach and that's exactly what our bipartisan AI working group has been leading," Schumer said of the plan.