Washington, D.C. – Today, several leading research universities engaged in artificial intelligence (AI) research, technology companies deploying AI technologies, and others announced support for the bipartisan and bicameral National AI Research Resource Task Force Act, which establishes a task force to develop a roadmap for a national AI research cloud.

The National AI Research Resource Task Force Act was introduced in the House by Representatives Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), and Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and in the Senate by Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), founding co-chairs of the Senate AI Caucus. The legislation will convene a group of technical experts across academia, government, and industry to develop a detailed plan for how the U.S. can build, deploy, govern, and sustain a national AI research cloud.

"The widespread support for the National AI Research Resource Task Force Act from our country's preeminent research universities and leading technology firms demonstrates how critical the legislation is for our country to retain our global lead in AI research," said Eshoo, Gonzalez, Sherrill, and Portman. "We thank the universities and companies supporting our bill, and we call on Congress to act on this legislation as soon as possible."

The National AI Research Resource Task Force Act is supported by:

• National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence Chairman Eric Schmidt and Vice Chairman Bob Work
• Stanford University
• The Ohio State University
• Princeton University
• UCLA
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Duke University
• Pennsylvania State University
• University of Pennsylvania
• Johns Hopkins University
• Allen Institute for AI
• OpenAI
• Mozilla
• IEEE-USA
• Google
• Amazon Web Services
• Microsoft
• IBM
• NVIDIA
• Orbital Insight
• Calypso AI

"The National AI Research Resource Task Force Act advances a recommendation endorsed by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence in our First Quarter Recommendations to Congress. It is an essential first step towards establishment of a national resource that would accelerate and strengthen AI research across the U.S. by removing the high-cost barrier to entry of compute and data resources. If realized, this infrastructure would democratize AI R&D outside of elite universities and big technology companies and further enable the application of AI approaches across scientific fields and disciplines, unlocking breakthroughs that will drive growth in our economy and strengthen national security," said National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence Chair Dr. Eric Schmidt and Vice Chair Sec. Bob Work.

"The National AI Research Resource Task Force Act of 2020 is vital to American innovation," said John Etchemendy, Denning Co-Director, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and Provost Emeritus at Stanford University. "A National Research Cloud will give academic researchers the tools needed to advance artificial intelligence far into the future. It will also elevate the ability of all colleges and universities to provide the research and teaching needed to maintain our competitiveness in AI. I applaud Congresswoman Eshoo and Senator Portman on taking the first step towards a National Research Cloud through this key piece of legislation."

"The Ohio State University supports the National AI Research Resources Task Force Act," said Morley O. Stone, Senior Vice President for Research at The Ohio State University. "This bill will explore the creation of a shared cloud computing infrastructure for researchers across the country. By bringing together academia, government and the private sector, we can dramatically increase the speed in which the U.S. can innovate in the highly competitive and rapidly evolving areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning."

"We applaud Senator Portman and Representative Eshoo for defining this crucial opportunity for tapping into the unique strength of America's AI research community. The current and future potential of groundbreaking technological innovation in the US lies in the numerous talented individuals and teams across the country—the National Research Cloud will be critical in democratizing access to key resources and empowering these researchers to take our AI capabilities to the next level," said Dr. Oren Etzioni, CEO, Allen Institute for AI.

"As artificial intelligence and machine learning become increasingly core to all of our lives, the National AI Research Resource Task Force Act of 2020 is an important part of ensuring that the internet remains open and accessible to all. The National AI Resource Task Force is crucial in supporting safe, privacy-preserving and reliable artificial intelligence resources to support researchers across the country," said Jofish Kaye, Principal Scientist at Mozilla.

"IEEE-USA supports S. 3890 / H.R. 7096 and applauds Sen. Portman and Cong. Eshoo for taking this much needed first step. The National AI Research Resource Task Force Act will focus our R&D resources, ensuring that the United States maintains our global leadership in this critical technology. By constructing a roadmap of research necessary to mature AI-based technology, and by giving experts from government, industry, and academia access to that information, S. 3890 / H.R. 7096 accelerates our AI capabilities far into the future, and enables us to leverage existing technology to advance the fields and disciplines that benefit from high-performance computing capability," said James M. Conrad, Ph.D., President, IEEE-USA.

"United States investments in Research & Development have enabled remarkable innovations, including the microchip, internet, supercomputers, and the Human Genome Project. A National AI Research Resource will help accelerate US progress in artificial intelligence and advanced technologies by providing academic researchers access to the cloud computing resources necessary for experiments at scale. Google recognizes this is an important opportunity for innovation, built on the principles of interoperability and open standards," said Jeff Dean, SVP, Google Research.

"We applaud Senator Portman and Representative Eshoo for helping advance cloud adoption, fostering American innovation, and ensuring U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence. The AWS Cloud increases efficiency while providing unrivaled scalability and services as it delivers powerful utilization of resources. We look forward to working with Senator Portman and Representative Eshoo to ensure the power of the cloud helps accelerate artificial intelligence research and development, and more," said David Levy, VP, US Government, Amazon Web Services.

"IBM applauds Senators Portman and Heinrich and Representatives Eshoo, Sherrill, and Gonzalez for introducing the National AI Research Resource Task Force Act. The bill will significantly accelerate America's leadership in AI by equipping researchers with data sets and computing power to unlock new breakthroughs, and helping train the next generation of data scientists. We strongly support this bill and look forward to advocating for its passage," said Dr. Dario Gil, Director of IBM Research.

"Researchers need access to massively parallel computing resources to develop and advance AI," said Ian Buck, Vice President and General Manager of Accelerated Computing at NVIDIA. "The world's largest tech companies have invested billions in developing such systems, and we welcome the federal government's efforts to accelerate important academic research. The National AI Research Resources Task Force Act will help give researchers the tools they need to advance science and industry. I applaud Congresswoman Eshoo, Senator Portman and the bipartisan, bicameral group of co-sponsors for driving this important initiative."

"As someone who has spent my career dedicated to understanding artificial intelligence, I am proud to lend my support to the National AI Research Resource Task Force Act of 2020. I applaud Congresswoman Eshoo and Senator Portman for their leadership on an issue so critical to our nation's security," said Dr. James Crawford, Founder and CEO, Orbital Insight.

"Calypso AI applauds Representatives Eshoo, Gonzalez and Sherrill, and Senators Portman and Heinrich, for their leadership in sponsoring this transformative legislation to establish a national AI research resource," said Neil Serebryany, the CEO of Calypso AI. "The research infrastructure that will be created by this legislation is critical to our nation's ability to lead the world in building secure and operational AI."