3 things to watch for in A.I. in 2021

But 2021 will likely be a big year for A.I., and with a new White House administration soon in place, there may be a clearer set of national A.I. policies that will trickle down to the business world. On New Year's Day, the U.S. Senate voted to overturn President Trump's veto of the National Defense Authorization Act and authorize $741 billion for defense spending, including the creation of a number of A.I.-related polices. Among the reasons Trump opposed the defense bill was the absence of a provision to repeal Section 230, which gives legal protections to Internet companies that host user-generated content. Although the defense bill was mostly geared toward military spending, it did contain a number of non-defense related A.I. initiatives, as Stanford University's Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence group outlined. For instance, the bill would create a "National AI Initiative" that would coordinate A.I. research and development between "civilian agencies," the Defense Department, and intelligence agencies.