Back in February, President Trump signed the new American AI Initiative into existence via executive order, but stakeholders in healthcare and other sectors are wondering if it goes far enough to support critical AI development.
As a recent article at GovernmentCIO pointed out, “AI comes into play in many high-profile areas, such as cybersecurity, manufacturing, workforce training and military capabilities, all of which were acknowledged in the announcement’s overarching theme of security and economic competitiveness. But it also holds game-changing prospects for health care.
From the administration’s perspective, the article notes, the new initiative isn’t the only game in town. For example, as we noted before, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has launched an AI Health Outcomes Challenge to assess AI’s transformative value, covering areas from cancer research to everyday patient care.
In addition, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs have launched programs focusing on AI-powered treatments, while the Department of Health and Human Services has launched several partnerships with industry, including one to use machine learning to help treat sepsis and another to develop new health care products.
Despite the myriad programs, though, observers point out the lack of new sources of government funding.
Daniel Castro, director of the Center for Data Innovation and vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, while noting that the United States still holds the lead in AI, and giving the initiative credit for prioritizing AI development, said the government needs to do more to keep pace with China’s hard-charging programs.
“If the administration wants its AI initiative to be transformative, it will need to do more than reprogram existing funds for AI research, skill development and infrastructure development,” Castro said in a statement in response to the initiative. He recommended that Congress authorize significant funding for research efforts, that the government exercise a light touch on regulations and export restrictions, quickly adopt AI technologies itself and retrain the workforce.
As the article sums up the challenge, “the private sector’s track record on AI development, as with information technology overall, is pretty strong, but whether the public-private approach will keep the U.S. ahead in the AI game with regard to health care remains to be seen.”