II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2217 

To require the Secretary of Commerce to establish the Federal Advisory 

Committee on the Development and Implementation of Artificial Intelligence, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 12, 2017 

Ms. CANTWELL (for herself, Mr. YOUNG, and Mr. MARKEY) introduced the 

following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 

Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Commerce to establish the Federal Advisory Committee on the Development and Implementation of Artificial Intelligence, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fundamentally Under5 standing The Usability and Realistic Evolution of Artifi6 cial Intelligence Act of 2017’’ or the ‘‘FUTURE of Artifi7 cial Intelligence Act of 2017’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

2 It is the sense of Congress that— 

3 (1) understanding and preparing for the ongo4 ing development of artificial intelligence is critical to 

5 the economic prosperity and social stability of the 

6 United States; 

7 (2) as artificial intelligence evolves, it can great8 ly benefit society by powering the information econ9 omy, fostering better informed decisions and helping 

10 unlock answers to questions that, as of the date of 

11 the enactment of this Act, are unanswerable; 

12 (3) for the reasons set forth in paragraph (2) 

13 it’s beneficial to better understand artificial intel14 ligence and foster the development of artificial intel15 ligence in a manner that maximizes its benefit to so16 ciety; and 

17 (4) it is critical that the priorities of the advi18 sory committee established under section 4(a)(1) in19 clude developing guidance or recommendations— 

20 (A) to promote a climate of investment and 

21 innovation to ensure the global competitiveness 

22 of the United States; 

23 (B) to optimize the development of artifi24 cial intelligence to address the potential growth, 

25 restructuring, or other changes in the United 


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1 States workforce that results from the develop2 ment of artificial intelligence; 

3 (C) to promote and support the unbiased 

4 development and application of artificial intel5 ligence; and 

6 (D) to protect the privacy rights of individ7 uals. 

8 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

9 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 

10 (b), in this Act: 

11 (1) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.—The term ‘‘ar12 tificial intelligence’’ includes the following: 

13 (A) Any artificial systems that perform 

14 tasks under varying and unpredictable cir15 cumstances, without significant human over16 sight, or that can learn from their experience 

17 and improve their performance. Such systems 

18 may be developed in computer software, phys19 ical hardware, or other contexts not yet con20 templated. They may solve tasks requiring 

21 human-like perception, cognition, planning, 

22 learning, communication, or physical action. In 

23 general, the more human-like the system within 

24 the context of its tasks, the more it can be said 

25 to use artificial intelligence. 


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1 (B) Systems that think like humans, such 

2 as cognitive architectures and neural networks. 

3 (C) Systems that act like humans, such as 

4 systems that can pass the Turing test or other 

5 comparable test via natural language proc6 essing, knowledge representation, automated 

7 reasoning, and learning. 

8 (D) A set of techniques, including machine 

9 learning, that seek to approximate some cog10 nitive task. 

11 (E) Systems that act rationally, such as in12 telligent software agents and embodied robots 

13 that achieve goals via perception, planning, rea14 soning, learning, communicating, decision mak15 ing, and acting. 

16 (2) ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.—The 

17 term ‘‘artificial general intelligence’’ means a no18 tional future artificial intelligence system that exhib19 its apparently intelligent behavior at least as ad20 vanced as a person across the range of cognitive, 

21 emotional, and social behaviors. 

22 (3) NARROW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.—The 

23 term ‘‘narrow artificial intelligence’’ means an artifi24 cial intelligence system that addresses specific appli25 cation areas such as playing strategic games, lanVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Dec 15, 2017 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2217.IS S2217

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1 guage translation, self-driving vehicles, and image 

2 recognition. 

3 (b) MODIFICATIONS.—The Federal Advisory Com4 mittee on the Development and Implementation of Artifi5 cial Intelligence established under section 4(a) may revise 

6 such definitions under subsection (a) of this section as the 

7 advisory committee considers appropriate. 

8 SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF FEDERAL ADVISORY COM9 MITTEE ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLE10 MENTATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. 

11 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.— 

12 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Commerce 

13 shall establish a Federal advisory committee to ad14 vise the Secretary on matters relating to the devel15 opment of artificial intelligence. 

16 (2) DESIGNATION.—The Federal advisory com17 mittee established under paragraph (1) shall be 

18 known as the ‘‘Federal Advisory Committee on the 

19 Development and Implementation of Artificial Intel20 ligence’’ (in this section the ‘‘Advisory Committee’’). 

21 (b) PURPOSES OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE.— 

22 (1) ADVICE.—The Advisory Committee shall 

23 provide advice to the Secretary on matters relating 

24 to the development of artificial general intelligence 


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1 and narrow artificial intelligence, including on the 

2 following as they relate to artificial intelligence: 

3 (A) The competitiveness of the United 

4 States, including matters relating to the pro5 motion of public and private sector investment 

6 and innovation into the development of artificial 

7 intelligence. 

8 (B) Workforce, including matters relating 

9 to the potential for using artificial intelligence 

10 for rapid retraining of workers, due to the pos11 sible effect of technological displacement. 

12 (C) Education, including matters relating 

13 to science, technology, engineering, and mathe14 matics education to prepare the United States 

15 workforce as the needs of employers change. 

16 (D) Ethics training and development for 

17 technologists working on artificial intelligence. 

18 (E) Matters relating to open sharing of 

19 data and the open sharing of research on artifi20 cial intelligence. 

21 (F) International cooperation and competi22 tiveness, including matters relating to the com23 petitive international landscape for artificial in24 telligence-related industries. 


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1 (G) Accountability and legal rights, includ2 ing matters relating to the responsibility for 

3 any violations of laws by an artificial intel4 ligence system and the compatibility of inter5 national regulations. 

6 (H) Matters relating to machine learning 

7 bias through core cultural and societal norms. 

8 (I) Matters relating to how artificial intel9 ligence can serve or enhance opportunities in 

10 rural communities. 

11 (J) Government efficiency, including mat12 ters relating to how to promote cost saving and 

13 streamline operations. 

14 (2) STUDY.—The Advisory Committee shall 

15 study and assess the following: 

16 (A) How to create a climate for public and 

17 private sector investment and innovation in ar18 tificial intelligence. 

19 (B) The possible benefits and effects that 

20 the development of artificial intelligence may 

21 have on the economy, workforce, and competi22 tiveness of the United States. 

23 (C) Whether and how networked, auto24 mated, artificial intelligence applications and 

25 robotic devices will displace or create jobs and 


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1 how any job related gains relating to artificial 

2 intelligence can be maximized. 

3 (D) How bias can be identified and elimi4 nated in the development of artificial intel5 ligence and in the algorithms that support 

6 them, including with respect to the following: 

7 (i) The selection and processing of 

8 data used to train artificial intelligence. 

9 (ii) Diversity in the development of 

10 artificial intelligence. 

11 (iii) The ways and places the systems 

12 are deployed and the potential harmful 

13 outcomes. 

14 (E) Whether and how to incorporate eth15 ical standards in the development and imple16 mentation of artificial intelligence. 

17 (F) How the Federal Government can en18 courage technological progress in implementa19 tion of artificial intelligence that benefits the 

20 full spectrum of social and economic classes. 

21 (G) How the privacy rights of individuals 

22 are or will be affected by technological innova23 tion relating to artificial intelligence. 

24 (H) Whether technological advancements 

25 in artificial intelligence have or will outpace the 


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1 legal and regulatory regimes implemented to 

2 protect consumers. 

3 (I) How existing laws, including those con4 cerning data access and privacy, should be mod5 ernized to enable the potential of artificial intel6 ligence. 

7 (J) How the Federal Government utilizes 

8 artificial intelligence to handle large or complex 

9 data sets. 

10 (K) How ongoing dialogues and consulta11 tions with multi-stakeholder groups can maxi12 mize the potential of artificial intelligence and 

13 further development of artificial intelligence 

14 technologies that can benefit everyone inclu15 sively. 

16 (L) How the development of artificial intel17 ligence can affect cost savings and streamline 

18 operations in various areas of government oper19 ations, including health care, cybersecurity, in20 frastructure, and disaster recovery. 

21 (M) Such other matters as the Advisory 

22 Committee considers appropriate. 

23 (3) REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.— 

24 (A) REPORT BY ADVISORY COMMITTEE.— 

25 Not later than 540 days after the date of the 


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1 enactment of this Act, the Advisory Committee 

2 shall submit to the Secretary and to Congress 

3 a report on the findings of the Advisory Com4 mittee and such recommendations as the Advi5 sory Committee may have for administrative or 

6 legislative action relating to artificial intel7 ligence. 

8 (B) RECOMMENDATIONS OF SECRETARY.— 

9 Not later than 90 days after receiving the re10 port submitted under subparagraph (A), the 

11 Secretary shall review the report and submit to 

12 Congress such recommendations as the Sec13 retary may have with respect to the matters 

14 contained in the report submitted under sub15 paragraph (A). 

16 (c) MEMBERSHIP.— 

17 (1) VOTING MEMBERS.— 

18 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Advisory Com19 mittee shall be composed of 19 voting members 

20 who shall be appointed by the Secretary of 

21 Commerce, with advisement from the Chair and 

22 Ranking Member of the Committee on Com23 merce, Science, and Transportation of the Sen24 ate and the Chair and Ranking Member of the 

25 Committee on Energy and Commerce of the 


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1 House of Representatives, for purposes of the 

2 Advisory Committee from among individuals 

3 with expertise in matters relating to workforce 

4 development, ethics, privacy, artificial intel5 ligence, or computer science. 

6 (B) REPRESENTATION.—In carrying out 

7 subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall ensure 

8 that voting members are appointed as follows: 

9 (i) Five members from academic or 

10 research community. 

11 (ii) Six members from private indus12 try, at least one of whom shall be from a 

13 small business concern. 

14 (iii) Six from civil society, at least two 

15 of whom shall be from groups that advo16 cate for civil liberties or civil rights. 

17 (iv) Two from labor organizations or 

18 groups. 

19 (C) GEOGRAPHICAL DIVERSITY.—In car20 rying out subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall 

21 ensure that the voting members of the Advisory 

22 Committee come from diverse geographical loca23 tions within the United States. 

24 (2) NONVOTING MEMBERS.—The Advisory 

25 Committee shall also be composed of such nonvoting 


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1 members as the Secretary considers appropriate, ex2 cept that the Secretary shall appoint at least one 

3 such member from each of the following: 

4 (A) The Department of Education. 

5 (B) The Department of Justice. 

6 (C) The Department of Labor. 

7 (D) The Department of Transportation. 

8 (E) The Federal Trade Commission. 

9 (F) The National Institute of Standards 

10 and Technology. 

11 (G) The National Science Foundation. 

12 (H) The National Science and Technology 

13 Council. 

14 (I) Such other nonvoting members as the 

15 voting members of the Advisory Committee con16 sider appropriate. 

17 (3) CHAIRPERSON.—The Secretary shall ap18 point a chairperson for the Advisory Committee 

19 from among the members appointed under para20 graph (1). 

21 (d) MEETINGS.—The Advisory Committee shall 

22 meet— 

23 (1) in person no less frequently than twice each 

24 year; and 


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1 (2) via telepresence no less frequently than once 

2 every two months. 

3 (e) POWERS.—In order to carry out its duties under 

4 subsection (b), the Advisory Committee may— 

5 (1) hold such hearings, sit and act at such 

6 times and places, take such testimony, and receive 

7 such evidence as the Advisory Committee considers 

8 appropriate; 

9 (2) submit to Congress such recommendations 

10 as the Advisory Committee considers appropriate; 

11 (3) submit to Federal agencies such rec12 ommendations as the Advisory Committee considers 

13 appropriate; 

14 (4) issue reports, guidelines, and memoranda; 

15 (5) hold or host conferences and symposia; 

16 (6) enter into cooperative agreements with 

17 third-party experts to obtain relevant advice or ex18 pertise, and oversee staff; 

19 (7) establish subcommittees; and 

20 (8) establish rules of procedure. 

21 (f) TRAVEL EXPENSES.—The members of the Advi22 sory Committee shall be allowed travel expenses, including 

23 per diem in lieu of subsistence, at rates authorized for em24 ployees of agencies under subchapter I of chapter 57 of 

25 title 5, United States Code, while away from their homes 


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1 or regular places of business in the performance of services 

2 for the Advisory Committee. 

3 (g) FUNDING.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para5 graph (2), amounts to carry out this section shall be 

6 derived from amounts appropriated or otherwise 

7 made available to the Secretary of Commerce. 

8 (2) DONATIONS.— 

9 (A) AUTHORIZATION.—The Advisory Com10 mittee may solicit and accept donations from 

11 private persons and non-Federal entities to 

12 carry out this section. 

13 (B) LIMITATION.—Of the amounts ex14 pended by the Advisory Committee in a fiscal 

15 year to carry out this section, not more than 

16 half may be derived from amounts received 

17 under subparagraph (A). 

Æ 


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