The General Services Administration would be tasked with both providing AI expertise to agencies and researching policy. The Office of Management and Budget would need to devise strategies for investing in and using AI for federal data. The Office of Personnel Management, meanwhile, would identify the skills necessary for AI workers and create relevant jobs. You could also expect an advisory board to tackle AI policy "opportunities and challenges," while executive agencies would create plans that spure the adoption of AI while protecting privacy and civil liberties.

The 2019 edition of the bill isn't necessarily going to fare much better than last year's counterpart, which stalled out after it was sent to committee. This new measure does have some important backers, though, including Facebook, Microsoft and the Internet Association (which involves Amazon and Google). If it ever becomes law, it could go some distance toward incorporating AI in government and parsing the volumes of government data that sometimes go underused.