The Biden Administration has refreshed its efforts to encourage AI innovation while mitigating AI risks.

In a fact sheet posted May 23, the team offers updates on three up-to-the-minute endeavors that, together, paint an Executive Branch excited as ever about AI yet increasingly watchful for irresponsibility among AI researchers, developers, commercializers and end-users.

Areas of special vigilance are sure to include safety, privacy and security. The three newly spotlighted AI works in progress expanding the breadth of this focus are:

1. An updated roadmap guiding federal investments in AI research and development. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is releasing a National AI R&D Strategic Plan. Updated for the first time in four years, this “roadmap” lays out priorities and goals related to federal R&D investments in AI. The OSTP says the plan, issued as a report from a select committee on AI overseen by the National Science and Technology Council, was drafted by “experts across the federal government and with public input.” More:

“[T]he federal government will invest in R&D that promotes responsible American innovation, serves the public good, protects people’s rights and safety and upholds democratic values. It will help ensure continued U.S. leadership in the development and use of trustworthy AI systems.”

2. A new request for public input on critical AI issues. Here the OSTP is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit input for guiding national priorities around reducing AI risks, safeguarding citizens’ rights and safety, and ensuring that AI stays aimed at improving the quality of life. The resulting info harvest will support the Biden Administration’s ongoing efforts to

“advance a cohesive and comprehensive strategy to manage AI risks and harness AI opportunities. It complements work happening across the federal government to engage the public on critical AI issues.”

3. A new report on the risks and opportunities related to AI in education. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology is releasing a new report, “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations.” This  document lays out the risks and opportunities related to AI when specifically used for educational purposes. More:

“AI can enable new forms of interaction between educators and students, help educators address variability in learning, increase feedback loops and support educators, [but it also brings risks]—including algorithmic bias—and [demands measures to ensure] trust, safety and appropriate guardrails.”

These three steps build on previous efforts by the Biden Administration to ensure Executive Branch involvement in shaping AI as it emerges across the public and private spheres. Earlier works include the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and related executive actions, the AI Risk Management Framework, a roadmap for standing up a National AI Research Resource, active work to address the national security concerns raised by AI, and investments and actions announced earlier this month.

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• ChatGPT has flunked a board-certification practice test. Specifically it was a self-assessment exam with 300 multiple-choice questions designed to prep gastroenterologists pursuing bona fides from the American Board of Internal Medicine. Publishing the results May 22, Arvind Trindade, MD, of Northwell Health and co-authors dryly dismiss ChatGPT: “We don’t recommend its use for medical education in gastroenterology in its current form.” The study is behind a paywall here. MedPage Today covers it in some detail here.
   
• Big Tech players like Google and Amazon have been far more successful than AI startups at driving healthcare AI into clinical settings. To find out exactly why, researchers spoke with heads of early-stage AI companies as well as execs at tech-forward investment firms. The investigators found several drags on startups’ efforts. Fragmented procurement processes at hospitals and health systems landed near the top. Azizi Seixas, PhD, of the University of Miami, senior author of the study behind the findings, says that, to make gains, “we need to add an innovation and technology infrastructure to better incorporate and implement these [startup] solutions into healthcare.” Study here, UMiami coverage here.
   
• Epic is partnering with several leading healthcare systems to bring generative AI of the large-language kind to patient service at scale. The technology rollout will start with administrative communications and, if it goes well, may expand to clinical areas. UNC Health in North Carolina is lead-piloting the system. UC-San Diego Health, University of Wisconsin Health and Stanford Medicine are planning to closely follow suit. UNC news item.
   
• AI models and machine-learning algorithms have identified small proteins that could help target and treat glaucoma and macular degeneration. The advance in drug-delivery prediction is being innovated at Johns Hopkins with an assist from the University of Maryland. Johns Hopkins news item here.
   
• Intelligent Medical Objects (Chicago) has snapped up Melax Tech (Houston) with an eye on refining quality in healthcare data. The combined might of the two will equip IMO’s care and research clients with natural language processing and other AI flavors so they can build solutions from word-based data. IMO also will now turn its attention to offering AI capabilities to payers, pharma operations and life-sciences companies. Announcement.
   
• Oral healthcare AI outfit Kells (New York) is partnering with Liberty Dental Plan (Irvine, Calif.) to bring AI-based services to underserved communities in the Northeast. Kells says the arrangement will help Liberty use AI to create risk profiles, identify treatment needs and coordinate follow-up care. Announcement here.
   
• Researchers have used AI to create a tool for rendering sign language as text. The resulting product may help solve any number of challenges faced by deaf people. Coverage by New Atlas here.
   
• Verge Genomics of South San Francisco is tapping Emerald Innovations of Cambridge, Mass., to test an AI-sourced drug designed to counterpunch amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease). Researchers will place Emerald’s wireless digital health sensors in study participants’ homes to continuously measure key neurological functions affected by ALS, according to a Verge news release. The sensors grab and relay data on sleeping, breathing and walking. From this data will come AI-aided assessments of changes in patients being treated with increasing doses of a promising drug.
   
• January AI (Menlo Park, Calif.) has debuted an app equipped with generative AI that tells people when their glucose levels are likely to rise or fall. It does so without input from a glucose monitor, basing its predictions on planned activities as well as anticipated foods. The company is selling the app straight to consumers for $288 for the first month plus $28 a month from then on. Details.  
   
• Microsoft is priming the public for a June release of Copilot, its new AI assistant for Windows 11. The feature will be much more capable than Cortana, the cutesy chatbot it makes obsolete. Or so the company hints in a May 23 blog post directed at software developers. “Once open, the Windows Copilot side bar stays consistent across your apps, programs and windows, always available to act as your personal assistant,” writes Microsoft chief product officer Panos Panay. “It makes every user a power user.” Good coverage by tech journalist Chris Velazco of the Washington Post here.