The United States issues the executive order creating the American AI Initiative

On 11 February 2019, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order on maintaining American leadership in artificial intelligence. The document sets out a coordinated federal strategy called the American AI Initiative, and it states that it is the policy of the United States Government to sustain and enhance the country's scientific, technological and economic leadership position in AI research and development and deployment.^[1]

What kind of document it is

An executive order is a written instruction from the president to federal agencies. It does not by itself appropriate money; it tells agencies how to organise, prioritise and report on work they are already authorised to do. This order follows that pattern. Almost everything it requires is a budget instruction, a review, a plan or a memorandum, each attached to a deadline and to a named official or body responsible for producing it.^[1] The order also treats leadership in AI as something that has to be defended abroad as well as built at home: one of its stated aims is an international environment that supports American AI while protecting the country's technological advantage.^[1]

The five principles

The initiative is guided by five principles. The first is driving technological breakthroughs across government, industry and academia. The second is setting technical standards and lowering barriers to the safe testing and deployment of AI. The third is training American workers. The fourth is fostering public trust and protecting civil liberties and privacy. The fifth is promoting an international environment that supports American AI while protecting technological advantage.^[1] Read together, they cover the research base, the rules of the road, the workforce, public acceptance and the international dimension — the places where a government can act without running the technology itself.

Tasks and deadlines

The order gives agency heads a set of concrete assignments. Heads of agencies that carry out AI research and development are directed to budget an amount appropriate to that prioritisation, taking it into account in fiscal year 2020 budget proposals and beyond.^[1] All agencies are required to review their federal data and models in order to increase access to and use of them by the non-federal AI research community.^[1] Within 90 days, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget was to publish a notice in the Federal Register inviting the public to identify additional requests for access to federal data and models, or for improvements in their quality.^[1] Within 180 days, the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, was to issue a plan for federal engagement in the development of technical standards and related tools for reliable, robust and trustworthy AI systems.^[1] The order also required an Office of Management and Budget memorandum on regulatory and non-regulatory approaches to AI-enabled sectors; a draft was to be published for public comment before the memorandum was finalised.^[1]

Coordination and the national security track

Delivery is assigned to implementing agencies, with coordination through the National Science and Technology Council's Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence.^[1] A separate national security presidential memorandum issued the same date dealt with protecting the United States advantage in artificial intelligence and related critical technologies; an action plan was to be delivered to the President within 120 days.^[1]

Why it mattered

The order's significance lies in what it changed about the machinery of government rather than in any single programme. It named AI as a presidential priority, gave agencies a shared set of principles, and tied future budget requests to that priority.^[1] It also treated federal data and models as a resource for researchers outside the government, and set a timetable for the government to work through questions of standards and of regulation.^[1] Because most of the deliverables were plans, notices and memoranda, the order is best read as a framework plus a schedule: it said who in the federal government had to produce what, and by when, leaving the substance to the agencies it named.^[1]