EMBARGOED UNTIL 4:30 PM ET, DECEMBER 20, 2016
- Invest in and develop AI for its many benefits;
- Educate and train Americans for jobs of the future; and
- Aid workers in the transition and empower workers to ensure broadly shared growth.
Strategy #1: Invest In and Develop AI for its Many Benefits
If care is taken to responsibly maximize its development, AI will make important, positive
contributions to aggregate productivity growth, and advances in AI technology hold incredible
potential to help America stay on the cutting edge of innovation. Indeed, CEA Chair Jason
Furman has written that his biggest worry about AI is “that we do not have enough [of it].”^40 AI
technology itself has opened up new markets and new opportunities for progress in critical areas
such as health, education, energy, economic inclusion, social welfare, transportation, and the
environment. Substantial innovation in AI, robotics, and related technology areas has taken place
over the last decade, but the United States will need a much faster pace of innovation in these
areas to significantly advance productivity growth going forward.^41 With the right investment in
AI and policies to support a larger and more diverse AI workforce, the United States has the
potential to accelerate productivity and maintain the strategic advantages that result from
American leadership in AI.^42
Invest in AI research and development
Government has an important role to play in advancing the AI field by investing in research and
development. Throughout the public outreach on AI conducted by OSTP, government officials
heard calls from business leaders, technologists, and economists for greater government
investment in AI research and development. Leading researchers in AI were optimistic about
sustaining the recent rapid progress in AI and its use in an ever wider range of applications. A
strong case can be made in favor of increased Federal funding for research in AI.
The Administration published its Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic
Plan in October 2016, laying out a detailed strategy and roadmap for government-funded AI
research and development.
(^40) Jason Furman, “Is This Time Different? The Opportunities and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence.” Remarks at
AI Now: The Social and Economic Implications of Artificial Intelligence Technologies in the Near Term. New York
University, New York, July 7 , 2016.
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/page/files/20160707_cea_ai_furman.pdf).
(^41) Ibid.
(^42) More detailed policy recommendations for investments in AI research and development, and development of the
AI workforce, see the previous Administration report, Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/whitehouse_files/microsites/ostp/NSTC/preparing_for_the_future_o
f_ai.pdf), and the accompanying Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan
(https://www.nitrd.gov/PUBS/national_ai_rd_strategic_plan.pdf).