Heinrich Bill to Democratize Access to Artificial Intelligence Research Passes Out of Committee

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Founder and Co-Chair of the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus, announced bipartisan passage of his Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with Artificial Intelligence Act (CREATE AI Act) out of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The legislation now heads to the Senate Floor for consideration.

"Our work on AI continues to be a uniting force across the aisle. I'm proud of the bipartisan leadership and widespread support that is moving our CREATE AI Act forward. Senators Todd Young, Cory Booker, and Mike Rounds have been great partners in advancing this legislation. I am confident we will continue to build up our momentum and pass this bill through the full Senate with broad, bipartisan support," said Heinrich.

Heinrich continued, "The CREATE AI Act will help us develop and deploy AI responsibly, while also helping us unleash American innovation by making the tools to conduct important research on this cutting-edge technology available to the best and brightest minds in New Mexico and nationwide. Truly democratizing and expanding access to AI will help us prepare American workers for the future, maintain our nation's competitive lead, and ensure these rapid advancements are a benefit to our society and country."

The CREATE AI Act establishes the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) as a shared national research infrastructure that provides AI researchers and students with greater access to the computational resources, data, and tools needed to develop safe and trustworthy artificial intelligence.

Heinrich's CREATE AI Act is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).

U.S. Representative Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), Co-Chair of the House Artificial Intelligence Caucus, introduced the House companion bill, along with Representatives Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Don Beyer (D-Va.), and Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.).

Find a fact sheet on the CREATE AI Act here. Find the bill text of the CREATE AI Act here.

Heinrich leadership on AI

Heinrich is among leading lawmakers in Congress spearheading bipartisan efforts on responsible AI policy. He is the co-founder and co-chair of the Senate Bipartisan AI Caucus, which he established with former Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) in 2019. The Caucus aims to keep the United States at the forefront of responsible AI innovation while maintaining important ethical, safety, and privacy standards.

This Congress, Heinrich has maintained a lead role on Leader Schumer's bipartisan AI working group to help shape policy centered around addressing the risks and harnessing the opportunities of AI.

Heinrich has led a number of successful policy initiatives on AI.

In 2020, Heinrich helped secure the most significant advancements for AI ever. The FY21 National Defense Authorization Act included a modified version of his Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act, a national strategy aimed at bolstering U.S. leadership in AI research and development. This legislation also included the bipartisan National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act to establish National AI Research Institutes at universities across the country.

Additionally, Heinrich helped pass the Artificial Intelligence for the Armed Forces Act to advance the Department of Defense's AI capabilities. He also helped provide the Pentagon with enhanced hiring authorities to recruit more AI professionals and other personnel with computational skills relevant to military applications.

Heinrich worked to establish the National AI Research Resource Task Force (NAIRR) to develop a detailed roadmap for the development of a national AI resource for AI research and convened a group of technical experts across academia, government, and industry to develop a detailed roadmap for how the United States can build, deploy, govern, and sustain a national research cloud and associated research resources.

A recommendation to establish the NAIRR came from the final report of the National Security Commission on AI, and work done by Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) significantly advanced the concept. Last year, the NAIRR Task Force released its final report with a roadmap for standing up a national research infrastructure that would broaden access to the resources essential to AI research and development. Heinrich recently included $30 million for NAIRR in the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill.

This month, Heinrich advanced the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024 (DEFIANCE Act), legislation he cosponsored to hold accountable those responsible for the proliferation of nonconsensual, sexually-explicit "deepfake" images and videos.

Heinrich also introduced the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED ACT), legislation to set new federal transparency guidelines for marking, authenticating and detecting AI-generated content, protect journalists, actors, and artists against AI-driven theft, and hold violators accountable for abuses.

In Albuquerque, Heinrich highlighted the potential of AI with a group of small-business owners who were learning how to use artificial intelligence.

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