Senator Gary Peters has introduced legislation intended to strengthen the nation’s workforce in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and other technologies.
The AI and Critical Technology Workforce Framework Act would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop a workforce framework that defines AI and helps to develop emerging technology jobs.
Speaking at a Senate hearing this week, Peters said just like the Industrial Revolution made lives better while creating new challenges, the AI revolution will do the same.
“A.I. will affect physical work, but unlike other technologies, it is more directly tied to our intellectual and cultural capacities,” Peters said. “It has already introduced new ways to ask and answer questions, synthesize information, conduct research, and even make art. These qualities, the ability to understand ideas and create culture, are the very foundation of our humanity. We must work to preserve them as they become influenced by artificial tools.”
Peters said it’s important to have federal policies in place to protect individual liberties from AI before the technology further advances.
The bill would also instruct the NIST to report to Congress on other emerging technology areas that could benefit from workforce frameworks and require input from industry, academia, and government agencies.