Betke: The singling out of artificial intelligence by the White House is aligned with the enthusiasm and preponderance of media coverage on the promises of AI research. The executive order comes after the White House claimed a year ago that its “2019 Budget invests in fundamental AI research and computing infrastructure to maintain US leadership in this field” while in the same document proposing to cut the budget of the National Science Foundation, the major federal sponsor of basic research in AI for the academic community.

Since then the subcommittee of the US House of representatives has held three hearings on artificial intelligence. Expert witnesses from academia, industry, and federal funding agencies testified, and it is promising that the resulting bipartisan report by subcommittee leaders makes several recommendations that were taken up by the new executive order. Both the congressional report and the White House order mention funding for AI R&D at federal agencies, funding for graduate students, a directive to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop technical standards, and development of data repositories that can be used to train AI systems.

These are really promising ideas, and hopefully, our executive and legislative government branches will come to an agreement on appropriate funding to make these ideas become a reality.

Bestavros: I am particularly happy to see an emphasis on security, privacy, civil liberties, and American values in the executive order. As the leader of the free world, the United States should set the example when it comes to development of standards for how AI intersects with our society and our humanity. This is a race that China cannot win, given their focus on using AI to limit freedoms. The US should strive to develop AI for a better humanity, and I am hopeful that this roadmap will be a step in the right direction.