Portman: Senate-Passed FY 2021 NDAA Contains Critical Reforms for Military Artificial Intelligence Readiness
Provisions Will Ensure America Can Field 21st-Century Fighting Force
WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) today announced the Senate-passed FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and its accompanying committee report take important steps in increasing our military’s artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities by including provisions from his bipartisan Artificial Intelligence for the Armed Forces Act. The legislation will now need to be conferenced with the version passed by the House of Representatives.
“The complexity of 21st century warfare requires that our armed forces be both technically skilled and proficient with their weapons,” said Portman, co-founder of the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus. “I applaud the Senate for passing this bipartisan legislation that takes important steps towards that goal by implementing parts of my bipartisan Artificial Intelligence for the Armed Forces Act, which includes a number of key recommendations by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. These policy changes will help our military attract top AI talent and improve our military’s effectiveness with respect to AI decision-making.”
Specifically, these provisions will:
- Requires the Director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to report directly to the Secretary of Defense;
- Ensures that the Director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center is three-star equivalent; and
- Modifies the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude test to add a computational assessment to identify applicants with skills in AI.
NOTE: Last month, Portman introduced the Artificial Intelligence for the Armed Forces Act which will strengthen the Department of Defense’s artificial intelligence (AI) capacity by increasing the number of AI and cyber professionals in the department. As co-founder and co-chair of the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus, Portman has helped lead efforts in the Senate on this issue, and has worked in a bipartisan manner on several key measures to set high-quality standards around emerging technology, including cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
In March 2019, Senator Portman and Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) announced the formation of the bipartisan Senate Artificial Intelligence (AI) Caucus, in part to prepare the United States military for the opportunities and challenges of AI.
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