With AI, agencies have secondary responsibility of providing data for industry - FedScoop

While many federal agencies primarily think of artificial intelligence as an emerging technology to support their own missions, they also have a secondary role to play in fueling America's research, development and testing of AI by sharing their data, federal tech leaders said Wednesday. The development of innovative artificial intelligence applications relies on powerful underlying data, which many federal agencies hold via the services they provide to Americans. But both U.S. CIO Suzette Kent and Lynne Parker, assistant director of AI in the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, identified agencies' hesitancy to share their data with private and academic partners, as well as other agencies, as a leading challenge limiting the nation's development of meaningful AI solutions. Kent said one of her biggest concerns around AI is figuring out "how we make available the powerful data that are strategic assets of the federal government on behalf of its citizens." Agencies are responsible for handling the data properly, but much of it belongs to the public. "The agencies have a responsibility for the external components -- many of the things … around making data available, responding to request from industry, supporting research and development, whether that is in direct grants or specific topic areas or making data or facilities available to support those sets of activities," Kent said at a Bipartisan Policy Center event.