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US task force will consider giving American data to AI researchers

A rack of Vast Data servers.

A new task force will consider giving troves of Americans' data to AI researchers.

Image: Vast Data

A new Biden administration task force will develop a strategy for providing vast troves of government data on American citizens to AI researchers, as part of an initiative to maintain American competitiveness with China and other countries in artificial intelligence.

The task force was formed as part of a requirement from the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020. The 12-person group, made of of researchers, political figures and industry leaders, will consider secure ways to share census data, medical records, driving data and other information collected by the federal government. Of the 12 members, Google's Andrew Moore (the head of Google Cloud AI) and Daniela Braga, the CEO of DefinedCrowd, are the two industry representatives.

The group will give its first reports in May and November 2022.

Anna Kramer

Anna Kramer is a reporter at Protocol (Twitter: @ anna_c_kramer, email: akramer@protocol.com), where she writes about labor and workplace issues. Prior to joining the team, she covered tech and small business for the San Francisco Chronicle and privacy for Bloomberg Law. She is a recent graduate of Brown University, where she studied International Relations and Arabic and wrote her senior thesis about surveillance tools and technological development in the Middle East.

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