The state's new 25-member commission on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Associated Technologies picked its leadership and areas of focus in its first meeting. Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield was elected chairman and State Sen. Jabo Waggoner (R-Vestavia Hills) will serve as vice-chairman. Waggoner proposed a joint resolution creating the commission in the last legislative session, which Gov. Kay Ivey approved. The commission is expected to examine several areas of focus, such as how schools and universities can develop AI-educational programs and privacy issues for consumers. It will meet over the next seven months and deliver a report to Ivey in May 2020 on how AI can benefit the economy.

Former FCC commissioner and chair, Mignon Clyburn, has been tapped to join tech execs, academics, national security officials and others on a new National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, according to the congress member who chose her, House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.). Clyburn joins representatives from Amazon, Google, Oracle and Microsoft on the committee, which was created by the National Defense Authorization Act and charged with reviewing the impact on national security on advances in AI, artificial learning and related fields. The commission has to produce a report to the White House by August. According to Inside Defense, the commission will also feature one sitting senator, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), appointed by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). In addition to her time on the FCC, Clyburn has been a state utility regulator and a journalist.

Britain's biggest employers are calling for a commission to examine the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs. Amid predictions of a workplace revolution threatening one in five jobs across the UK, the CBI is urging Theresa May to launch the commission from early 2018. It said companies and trade unions should be involved and the commission should help to set out ways to increase productivity and economic growth as well looking into the impact of AI. The business lobby group said almost half of firms were planning to devote resources to AI, while one in five had already invested in the technology in the past year. Companies are increasingly using computers to scour vast datasets in order to spot inefficiencies, while they are also employing machines to control the flow of activity in warehouses and factories and to take meter readings.