Top Federal officials said this week that President Biden’s recent artificial intelligence (AI) executive order (EO) will prove to be most significant in the role that it will play in recruiting talent to the Federal government.
“One of the things that was incredibly exciting was the attention and focus [the EO] put on talent and on saying the only way that we can meet this moment – when technology is poised to so fundamentally change how we deliver everything – is for us to have talent inside government who truly understands what that means, how it works, and how to leverage that,” said Mina Hsiang, administrator of the United States Digital Service (USDS), at the State of the Net Conference in Washington, D.C.
“This for me was incredibly powerful and I think demonstrates the degree of commitment and understanding inherent in that EO that this is such a fundamental part of making [AI] successful,” she added.
“That is the thing that will most change and supercharge and scale up the work that we do, which is how do we bring in the right folks to do the work here,” Hsiang continued. “[The EO] is not only a tool, but it’s a statement of purpose, which is we recognize that in order to do [AI] there will need to be a surge of talent and we are committed to making that happen.”
To ensure the responsible government deployment of AI and to modernize Federal AI infrastructure, President Biden’s AI EO directs USDS – alongside the Office of Personnel Management, U.S. Digital Corps, and Presidential Innovation Fellowship – to accelerate the rapid hiring of AI professionals as part of a government-wide AI talent surge.
The White House launched a new AI.gov website in an effort to bolster the AI talent search for the Federal government. Additionally, agencies are required to provide AI training for employees at all levels in relevant fields.
Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) Clare Martorana said during the panel that the government is currently leveraging AI in “a lot of really interesting ways” that are “giving us some really keen insights,” but added talent remains a critical part of welding the emerging tool.
“There’s also enabling talent,” Martorana said. “It’s not all researchers that we are going to be hiring – we need IT teams on the ground in agencies that have modern skills, they are using modern software, they’re working on a good tech stack, and that they’re able to actually help their ecosystem in your agency go on a journey of innovation.”
The USDS lead highlighted that AI should be used in tandem with humans to increase productivity.
“A study just came out demonstrating that in customer service call centers utilizing AI in a complementary fashion – not to replace humans, but to help service the right answers to the people answering the phones and to help make them more productive – has dramatically increased productivity, particularly for baseline customer service reps,” Hsiang said. “[AI] brings new folks up to a certain level and it allows you to have a much higher level of performance in a call center.”
On the Hill side of the AI conversation, Senior Advisor to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, John Beezer, said during the Feb. 12 State of the Net Conference that AI’s “most obvious challenge that’s in front of us is workforce impact.”
“There’s some arguments that [AI] will create so many new opportunities, there’ll be lots of new jobs and everything will be fine, but I don’t think that’s guaranteed and I think we need to be prepared for it,” Beezer said. “I think we’re still trying to get a handle on what’s actually going to happen. But I think it’s probably the clearest, most obvious thing that we need to be working on right now.”
Beezer confirmed that Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. – chair of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee – has a forthcoming GI bill that will focus on AI and ensuring that the U.S. workforce receives education and training about the emerging technology.
However, Beezer noted that the bipartisan, bicameral Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with Artificial Intelligence Act of 2023 (CREATE AI Act) is the “closest thing to a slam dunk we have.”
The CREATE AI Act would make permanent the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) – launched by the National Science Foundation last month – to help democratize the development and use of AI.
Beezer said he believes the Senate isn’t quite ready to bring forth a package of AI legislation.
“What I think would ordinarily happen is there would be some kind of Christmas tree bill that you stick all the ornaments on,” he continued, adding, “And there may be a few candidates for that, but for various reasons I’m not entirely sure we have that yet.”
On the House side, Rob Hicks, legislative director for Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., said that in order to put effective guardrails on AI, Congress will need to pass multiple bills over multiple years.
“My boss views doing AI, it’s not one bill – it’s multiple bills over multiple years as issues arise,” Hicks said. “My boss is concerned that trying to do too much too fast just opens you up to, ‘A’ you’re locking out potential innovations, and ‘B’ you’re not able to react fast enough as things develop.”
During the same event, Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., said that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., are “on the same page” to set up an informal AI working group “soon.”
Hicks said that he is also hopeful this working group will be stood up soon to help move AI legislation along in the House, and it will be different from the Senate’s AI caucus in that it’s “a little more formalized” and will be “a cross section of members from different committees.”
