Booker, Rounds, Heinrich, Lieu, and Obernolte Reintroduce Bipartisan AI Grand Challenges Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Mike Rounds (R-SD), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) along with Congressmen Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Jay Obernolte (R-CA), reintroduced the AI Grand Challenges Act, a bipartisan, bicameral bill to harness the promise of artificial intelligence to solve complex problems across a range of sectors, including health, energy, environment, national security, materials science, and cybersecurity - as well as address AI system-specific challenges like bias mitigation and content provenance.

The bill directs the National Science Foundation to establish an AI Grand Challenges Program and administer prize competitions - with $1 million minimum prizes - to incentivize researchers, entrepreneurs, and innovators to harness AI to address specific and measurable challenges to benefit the United States and serve the public good.

"New Jersey has long been a hub of cutting-edge research and development-from the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs in Murray Hill in the 1940s, to groundbreaking AI research at our companies and universities today," said Senator Booker. "I'm proud to lead this bipartisan bill to harness the power of artificial intelligence to tackle pressing challenges and deliver real benefits to people across our state."

"The impact that AI has already made on our country is promising, but we haven't even scratched the surface on harnessing its full potential,"said Senator Rounds. "The ability to make progress in the fields of science, technology and especially health care will be revolutionary and could even lead to the cures of many diseases. Grand challenges have proven successful in ways to advance new scientific discoveries. Our legislation would create an AI Grand Challenges program that encourages innovation in the use of AI."

"Spurring innovation in AI is essential to maintaining America's leadership in this critical field. By leading in AI research, innovation, and deployment, we can ensure strong safeguards are built in as the technology evolves. I am pleased to work with Rep. Obernolte and Senators Booker and Rounds on the AI Grand Challenges Act, and I look forward to continuing our efforts to ensure AI delivers meaningful benefits for American families, said Congressman Lieu."

"The AI Grand Challenges Act will ensure the U.S. continues to lead in artificial intelligence research and development across critical sectors such as health, energy, and cybersecurity," said Congressman Obernolte. "By incentivizing breakthroughs, we are paving the way for transformative advancements that will harnesses the incredible potential of AI to solve some of our nation's most pressing challenges."

"Prize competitions are an underutilized tool to encourage and incentivize open innovation, test new approaches, and widen the participant pool for diverse ideas. As AI becomes increasingly more ubiquitous, it is important that the public, private sector, and government work together to solve or advance the field in areas that matter to everyone-healthcare, energy, manufacturing, cybersecurity, and more. It is exciting to see the value and the potential of prize competitions encapsulated in this legislation," said Ali Crawford, Senior Research Analyst, Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

Grand challenges and prize competitions have been used for centuries to achieve ambitious but achievable goals. They were used in the 1700s to find a way to accurately measure the longitude of ships at sea; in the early twentieth century to advance the state of the art in aviation; and in the early twenty-first century to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicle technology.

In the past 15 years alone, the U.S. federal government has run hundreds of prize competitions. They are cost-effective because they pay only for success; they attract large and diverse groups of participants from across disciplines who are singularly focused on achieving a particular goal; and they elevate the prominence of problems that need solving.

There are notable examples that demonstrate the promise of AI to address major scientific challenges. In recent years, AI has been used topredict the 3D structure of proteins, which may improve drug discovery and lead to better treatments and cures; to discover entirely new materials that may help to improve the efficiency of batteries and superconductors; and to deliver breakthroughs in medical screening and imaging to better detect disease.

The AI Grand Challenges Act will build on this momentum and further support the development of new innovations to benefit society.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

To read a one-pager on the bill, click here.