The White House released its AI Action Plan on Wednesday, which focuses on deregulating the technology, establishing regulatory sandboxes to test artificial intelligence innovation and promoting standards for the technology.
The AI Action Plan (PDF) was directed by President Donald Trump’s early executive order on AI, “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” signed Jan. 23. The document says AI could bring an “industrial revolution, information revolution and a renaissance” to the U.S., including breakthroughs in medicine and drug discovery.
The proposals were laid out by Michael Kratsios, assistant to the president for science and technology, David Sacks, special advisor for AI and crypto, and Marco Rubio, assistant to the president for national security affairs, and are recommended as near-term actions for the administration.
While healthcare is only directly mentioned a few times in the 28-page document, many of the proposals could potentially impact healthcare AI innovators.
The AI Action Plan has three pillars: accelerating AI innovation, building American AI infrastructure and leading in international AI diplomacy and security.
To accelerate AI innovation in the U.S., the White House says it will cut “bureaucratic red tape” hindering American industries. Part of this deregulatory initiative will build on the work by the Office of Management and Budget earlier this year to identify, revise and repeal burdensome regulations. The Office of Science and Technology Policy will also put out a request for information on regulations that are hindering AI innovation.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will play a significant role in Trump’s America First AI agenda. The NIST will launch domain-specific efforts, including in healthcare, to convene stakeholders to develop and adopt standards for AI and measure how AI increases productivity.
The NIST AI framework will be revised to remove mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion, climate change and misinformation, Trump’s action plan says.
The AI Action Plan also proposes to create a series of regulatory sandboxes or AI Centers of Excellence through federal agencies to test commercial AI innovations and advance a “try-first” AI ethos to combat slow uptake of the technology in sectors like healthcare.
“Many of America’s most critical sectors, such as healthcare, are especially slow to adopt due to a variety of factors, including distrust or lack of understanding of the technology, a complex regulatory landscape, and a lack of clear governance and risk mitigation standards,” the plan says. “A coordinated Federal effort would be beneficial in establishing a dynamic, ‘try-first’ culture for AI across American industry.”
The administration will encourage publishing open-source AI models to make innovation accessible to those who seek to use it and to prevent companies from sharing intellectual property with closed-source AI developers.
The AI Action Plan lays out ways the federal government can invest in AI through agency grants. However, it says it will consider limiting federal AI funding to states with burdensome regulations. Though the plan does not name any states, California comes to mind as a state that has moved faster than the federal government on AI regulation.
“The Federal government should not allow AI-related Federal funding to be directed toward states with burdensome AI regulations that waste these funds,” the plan says.
Trump’s AI Action Plan also focuses on promoting workforce training on AI and stresses that AI will not cost Americans their jobs. The administration proposes to advance a priority set of actions to enhance AI literacy and issue guidance on whether AI education training would be eligible for tax-free reimbursement for employers.
The plan recommends a list of actions for better coordination across the federal government on AI, including a council for all agency chief AI officers, an internal AI talent exchange program and creating uniformity in AI procurement across agencies.
The White House plan also lays out intentions to invest in infrastructure for AI-enabled science and states the administration's ambitions to build the "largest and highest quality AI-ready scientific datasets, while maintaining respect for individual rights and ensuring civil liberties, privacy, and confidentiality protections."
Soumi Saha, senior vice president, government affairs at Premier Inc., praised the administration's efforts to propel AI innovation and establish a framework.
"The White House’s AI Action Plan sets a course towards secure, trustworthy artificial intelligence in healthcare. As Premier has emphasized to Congress and the Administration, continued U.S. leadership in AI is critical to America’s health, economy and security. Premier is especially encouraged by the strategy’s focus on incorporating healthcare voices into a sector-specific framework through NIST, training the clinical workforce of the future to harness AI’s potential, and strengthening the cybersecurity of critical health infrastructure," Saha said in a statement.
"As we work together to imagine the future of healthcare, Premier looks forward to engaging in these new initiatives to ensure AI helps providers deliver better care at lower costs for America’s patients," Saha said.