Heinrich Encouraged By National Science Foundation Establishment of “Trustworthy AI” Research Theme

WASHINGTON (Oct. 26, 2021) – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a co-founder of the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus, is welcoming efforts by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a new theme prioritizing trustworthy AI as part of its National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institutes. The recent announcement by NSF mirrors legislation and calls made by Senator Heinrich.

“If our country is to reap the benefits of AI at scale, we must ensure that citizens and users — human people — have the trust and confidence in AI systems to actually deploy them,”said Heinrich. “That’s why I’m pleased to see the National Science Foundation embrace the need to prioritize AI research on safety and ethics and increase efforts to establish a new AI research institute theme focused on studying and enhancing the trustworthiness of AI. In recent weeks, internal research of major tech companies like Facebook have revealed that AI systems can have unintended consequences on its users, including significant ethical and safety issues. Funding this research in the public domain will go a long way to help address those problems. I look forward to providing congressional oversight to ensure NSF puts sufficient resources towards this critical Trustworthy AI research topic."

In May, Senator Heinrich and U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) sent a letter to NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan calling on him to ensure that the U.S. remains a leader on AI by establishing AI institutes dedicated to ethics and safety, ensuring AI pursuits are transparent, reliable, and in line with American values. He also introduced the bipartisan Artificial Intelligence Capabilities and Transparency (AICT) Act that expresses the Sense of Congress that the National Science Foundation should establish focus areas in AI safety and AI ethics as part of the establishment of new, federally funded National Artificial Intelligence Institutes over the coming year.

Senators Heinrich has a track record of leading successful bipartisan efforts on AI, including the most significant advancements for AI ever secured in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. The FY21 NDAA included a modified version of the Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act (AI-IA) a comprehensive national strategy aimed at bolstering U.S. leadership in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research and development.