The White House has launched a new site — Artificial Intelligence for the American People — to serve as a clearinghouse for the growing U.S. initiative in A.I. and A.I. research. The site includes links to the key policy documents that undergrid the initiative including the recent Executive Order signed by the President in February.
The NITRD Health Information Technology Research and Development Interagency Working Group (HITRD IWG) requests input to collect information on new approaches from industry, academia, and non-governmental organizations, to solve the interoperability issues between medical devices, data, and platforms.
Interested persons are invited to submit comments to the Federal Register on or before 11:59 p.m. (ET) on March 15, 2019.
The Government anticipates hosting a conference in June/July 2019 to allow for additional engagement. The results of the conference discussion, in addition to the written responses to this RFI, will be used to determine next steps in addressing federal efforts in interoperability of data, platforms, and medical devices. This RFI is solely issued to engage with interested parties to inform the Government on developing a strategy for medical device, data, and platform interoperability. The Government will not reimburse costs associated with participating in the conference. The Government may contact respondents regarding their submissions, such as to ask questions, to learn more, or to notify them of further developments related to the effort.
As expected the President signed an executive order on artificial intelligence on February 11, 2019. Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence is centered around maintaining U.S. leadership in research and development and technological superiority in A.I. with a nod toward workforce development and guidance for regulation of certain A.I. applications.
The E.O. is high-level and the language used is very general and broad. No specific R&D budget recommendations or program directions are made, nor are any federal research agencies given leadership roles. The order calls on federal science agencies to prioritize AI within their FY 2020 budget requests (which should be close to final at this point) and within existing FY 2019 amounts, despite the fiscal year being nearly half over and final 2019 funds still not approved by Congress.
The document sets out key objectives for sustaining U.S. preeminence in artificial intelligence technology. These include: promoting sustained investment in AI R&D; enhanced access to high-quality and fully traceable Federal data, models, and computing resources; reducing barriers to the use of AI technologies to promote their application while protecting U.S. economic and national security, civil liberties, privacy, and values; ensuring technical standards minimize vulnerability to attacks from malicious actors and maintain innovation, public trust, and public confidence in AI systems; and development of the next generation of American AI researchers and users through apprenticeships; skills programs; and education in STEM fields with an emphasis on computer science.
The E.O. also calls for an action plan to protect the advantage of the United States in AI and technology critical to United States economic and national security interests against strategic competitors and foreign adversaries.
Several media outlets are reporting that the Trump Administration will issue an executive order on artificial intelligence strategy as soon as today — Monday, February 11th. According to the New York Times, the order does not set aside funds for A.I. research and development, and there are few details on how any new policies will be put into effect. More information on the new order will be posted as it becomes available.
Upcoming Brookings event in Washington, DC on smart cities and A.I. Cities such as the City of Saratoga in upstate New York are exploring how to implement a smart city model that works for all.
Smart cities and artificial intelligence https://t.co/UIhJp9w2t7
— Tim Clancy (@archstreetllc) February 2, 2019
On Friday, December 28, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released: “Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices (HICP): Managing Threats and Protecting Patients” [PDF]. The publication, aims to provide voluntary cybersecurity practices to healthcare organizations of all types and sizes, ranging from local clinics to large hospital systems.
The industry-led effort was in response to a mandate set forth by the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 Section 405(d), to develop practical cybersecurity guidelines to cost-effectively reduce cybersecurity risks for the healthcare industry. The publication marks the culmination of a two-year effort that brought together over 150 cybersecurity and healthcare experts from industry and the government under the Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) Sector Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Public-Private Partnership.
The HICP publication aims to provide cybersecurity practices for this vast, diverse, and open sector to ultimately improve the security and safety of patients. It explores the five most relevant and current threats to the industry and recommends ten Cybersecurity Practices to help mitigate these threats. The document presents real-life events and statistics that demonstrate the financial and patient care impacts of cyber incidents. It also lays out a call to action for all industry stakeholders, from C-suite executives and healthcare practitioners to IT security professionals, that protective and preventive measures must be taken now. The publication also includes two technical volumes geared for IT and IT security professionals. Technical Volume 1 focuses on cybersecurity practices for small healthcare organizations, while Technical Volume 2 focuses on practices for medium and large healthcare organizations. The last volume provides resources and templates that organizations can leverage to assess their own cybersecurity posture as well develop policies and procedures.
Merry Christmas from Arch Street!
