“The more we cut, the more the ideas that are being proposed to NSF in quantum, in AI will not be funded. And guess what; who’s funding them and the people? It is our competitor,” NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said, in reference to global competitors. 

“This is a national security issue,” he added, “and this is not something that we should take lightly at all. I’m extremely worried.”

Panchanathan’s comments came in response to a question from Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif, ranking member of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, who asked about the impact that further cuts might have on research priorities on top of the roughly 8% cut the science agency already took in 2024 appropriations.

In response to that same question, Dan Reed, chair emeritus of the National Science Board, called the cuts “devastating.” 

“We’re leaving the future on the table,” Reed said. “And I would add that those cuts potentially are convolved with inflation and so the real spending cuts are actually much larger.”

The hearing before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Research and Technology comes after NSF and other science agencies experienced cuts in the fiscal year 2024 appropriations passed by Congress. 

Notably, those funding levels fell short of what lawmakers previously authorized to carry out the work of the CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed into law in 2022 to boost U.S. production of semiconductors and to support scientific research and development in emerging technology areas.

President Joe Biden’s proposed budget seeks an increase for NSF, bringing its funding from $9.06 billion in the fiscal year 2024 appropriations to $10.18 billion. But even that would still put NSF’s funding below CHIPS Act targets. 

In response to a question from Rep. Scott Franklin, R-Fla., about the research NSF is able to fund, Panchanathan said the agency generally gets more than 40,000 proposals each year and is able to fund a quarter of those on average, but roughly 30-35% of proposals it receives have achieved NSF’s “gold standard” of merit review and could be funded.

Panchanathan said he’s worried about researchers being rejected for insufficient funds when their proposals were ranked high and not continuing to try. “The lost opportunity is not even part of this. If we factor that in, it’s even more than what we’re talking about,” he said.

Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., the chairman of the subcommittee, acknowledged the agency’s funding levels in opening remarks, noting that “the NSF’s budgetary constraints, coupled with evolving geopolitical dynamics and shifting research priorities, underscore the importance of our discussion today.”

Similarly, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., the subcommittee’s ranking member, pointed to the panel’s work on the science portion of the CHIPS and Science Act, which authorized the NSF’s Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships and called for a doubling of NSF’s budget by 2027. 

“We can’t just say that we’re competing against China. We must put our money where our mouth is,” Stevens said.

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The roadmap outlines policy areas the working group believes “merit bipartisan consideration” and summarizes findings from that group’s insight forums held last year with AI leaders from industry, academia and advocacy groups. In addition to boosting AI spending, the report also covers deepfakes, upskilling workers, and fully funding a National AI Research Resource in its priorities.

“We hope this roadmap will stimulate momentum for new and ongoing consideration of bipartisan AI legislation, ensure the United States remains at the forefront of innovation in this technology, and help all Americans benefit from the many opportunities created by AI,” the working group members said in the roadmap.

The Bipartisan Senate AI Working Group is composed of Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Todd Young, R-Ind., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The roadmap comes as legislators in both chambers have explored myriad ways to address the risks and potential of the booming technology but haven’t yet passed broad AI legislation. 

Previewing the announcement last week, Schumer said their approach isn’t to develop one comprehensive plan but rather targeted legislation that addresses specific issues. In a press conference Wednesday, Schumer said the working group’s deliberations were never meant to supplant the work of congressional committees.

“We are very, now, hopeful that the bipartisan momentum that we fostered and the recommendations we made will extend into the committees and their process,” Schumer said. “If anything is going to be accomplished, it has to be bipartisan and it’s going to be done by the committees.”

Schumer also said he plans to meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., “in the very near future to see how we can make this bipartisan effort bicameral.”

Among the recommendations in the roadmap, the working group encouraged the executive branch and the Senate Appropriations Committee to reach “as soon as possible” the $32 billion in annual spending on non-defense AI innovation that was proposed by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence in its final report. 

That panel, which was made up of people from industry and academia, was tasked with making recommendations to the president and Congress on AI and issued its conclusions in 2021. At the time, their recommended investment would have doubled government research and development spending.

Lawmakers also underscored the need to fund accounts that haven’t reached their full funding potential under the CHIPS and Science Act, “particularly those related to AI.” Among the accounts the lawmakers listed was the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships, which is aimed at boosting U.S. competitiveness in critical and emerging technologies through research.

Additionally, authorizing a full-scale National AI Research Resource was included as a policy priority. The NAIRR, which operates under NSF, is currently in a pilot phase and is providing access to industry and federal tools and data needed for AI research, such as access to supercomputers and generative AI models. Lawmakers and administration officials, however, have stressed the need for legislation to codify and fully fund the resource.

The roadmap was immediately met with praise and criticism Wednesday.

Linda Moore, president and CEO of TechNet, applauded the roadmap’s support for funding, including for the AI Safety Institute and legislation to authorize the NAIRR. TechNet, a network of technology CEOs and senior executives, worked to advocate for the passage of the NAIRR legislation with the bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Moore said in a prepared statement. 

By providing funding for those initiatives and others, “Congress will empower a new generation of AI leaders, expand innovation and opportunity beyond Silicon Valley, and keep America at the forefront of scientific development for generations to come,” Moore said.

Meanwhile, Nicole Gill, co-founder and executive director of Accountable Tech, called the roadmap “another proof point of Big Tech’s profound and pervasive power to shape the policymaking process.” Accountable Tech is an organization focused on reining in Big Tech.

Gill called the insight forums a “dream scenario for the tech industry” and alleged that companies “played an outsized role in developing this roadmap and delaying legislation.” She also said the roadmap “is most concrete in offering a roadmap for industry priorities while merely hand-waving toward many of the most pressing challenges associated with the widespread adoption of AI.”

This story was updated May 15, 2024, with comments from Schumer’s press conference Wednesday.

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According to the Federal Register posting, the CHIPS Research and Development Office seeks to establish “one (1) Manufacturing USA Institute focused on” digital twins —  a digital representation of a physical object or process that can assist in simulating potential situations and their outcomes — for semiconductor operations. Additionally, the competition includes “the validation of such digital twins in a physical prototyping facility.”

“After receiving extensive public input, CHIPS R&D determined that a single institute with both regionally-focused programs and meaningful cross-region participation will best meet the CHIPS R&D program goals of strengthening U.S. technology leadership, accelerating ideas to market and realizing a robust semiconductor workforce,” the notice states. “Despite substantial existing investment in proprietary digital twin technology, the United States lacks a comprehensive environment for collaborative development and validation of semiconductor industry digital twins.”

The minimum NIST commitment for this is listed at $200 million across five years. CHIPS R&D expects to announce the competition officially in the second quarter of 2024, according to the notice, and to post the official notice of funding opportunity on Grants.gov.

Manufacturing USA Institute, which NIST is looking to establish, are cross-sector partnerships that attempt to bring together various forms and sizes of industry organizations and government entities. The institutes aim to foster a community that lends itself to collaboration, support the delivery of tangible benefits to all manufacturers, enhance research institutions and “ensure a national reach in workforce development.”

The notice also states that a planned CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute Industry Day will happen this month, providing an opportunity for the government to  “solicit feedback on the NIST plans and timelines for the Institute.”

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Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, is expected in the coming weeks to introduce the legislation with a series of bills related to relevant AI issues like deepfakes, jobs and training, algorithmic bias, digital privacy, national security, and AI innovation and competitiveness, according to Cantwell’s staff and four sources familiar with the legislative effort.

The comprehensive series of AI bills has the support and blessing of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who has tapped multiple Senate committee chairs to lead on introducing and debating major AI legislation after the culmination of his bipartisan AI Insight Forums last year, three sources familiar with the legislative effort told FedScoop.  

“The AI bills won’t come out all at the same time; they’ll be dropped in a series, in a staggered fashion, but we’re aiming for the next few weeks and months as soon as possible,” a senior legislative aide for the Senate Commerce Committee majority staff told FedScoop. “It’s a top priority for the senator especially because other countries and the U.S. need to be ahead on AI policy and AI competitiveness.

“Senate Commerce has the primary or at least very important jurisdiction on AI policy and a majority of AI policy is already coming out of our committee. Many bills have been referred to us, so we want to build upon that and work with Republicans to put out something that can move,” the senior aide added.

Cantwell announced at various points in 2023 that she’s working on introducing AI-related bills, including legislation on threats posed by deepfakes, a federal privacy bill targeting AI discrimination, a reskilling “GI bill” for AI, as well as legislation on potential disruptions to jobs and education posed by AI. 

She has yet to actually introduce any AI legislation, but has made it a priority for herself and the Senate Commerce Committee in the next few months. 

Two AI scholars familiar with legislative efforts in Congress told FedScoop that they expect Cantwell’s comprehensive AI legislation to start with the introduction of bills that focus on a few areas of shared bipartisan interest.

“The low-lying fruits are AI bills related to deepfakes in a narrow fashion, AI research and development, consumer fraud, and workers displaced by AI,” said Samuel Hammond, a senior economist focused on AI policy at the Foundation for American Innovation, a tech-focused, libertarian-leaning think tank previously known as the Lincoln Network.

“The vibes are there is some agreement but nothing that’s clearly going to go all the way,” Hammond added. “It wouldn’t surprise me given this is the Commerce Committee that Cantwell uses the bills to follow up on the CHIPS and Science Act, to get the most bang for their buck.”

Daniel Colson, the founder and executive director of the AI Policy Institute, said that he expects Cantwell’s series of comprehensive AI bills to focus first on bias and discrimination caused by AI, followed by legislation to address the most displaced workers, like language translators. There could also be bills to regulate the most extreme risks that large AI models that cost $10 billion or more could bring, he said. 

Three AI scholars familiar with Cantwell’s AI legislative efforts said the legislation could include a spending package related to AI policymaking between $8 billion and $10 billion.

Gathering bipartisan momentum for any major AI legislative effort has proven challenging, given the chasm between Democrats and Republicans in Congress and within the Senate Commerce Committee in particular. 

“Republican Commerce Committee staff said at a meeting with some of us recently that ‘we’re just going to hold the line’ on all AI-related legislation,” a senior AI scholar who met with Senate Republican Commerce staffers at the end of 2023 told FedScoop. The source added that Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas and other Republican members appear to favor Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen’s anti-regulation stance, and have expressed aversion toward doing “anything on AI proactively in contrast to the Democrats.”  

Some AI experts plugged into the legislative efforts on Capitol Hill who participated in Schumer’s bipartisan AI Insight Forums would like to see Cantwell’s comprehensive bills focus on a narrow set of key issues where there has already been agreement within both major parties.

“I think if we pursue the path of bipartisanship, we should be focused on, how do we stay ahead when it comes to AI and the investments needed?” Ylli Bajraktari, CEO of the nonprofit Special Competitive Studies Project, told FedScoop.

Bajraktari said that if the bills contain too many requests for more government spending, “then you’ll have these cracks of people defecting. But if the bill maintains focus on our national security, staying ahead in innovation, and the U.S. continuing to lead, then I think that increases the chances that comprehensive bills will be bipartisan and passable.”

Paul Lekas, senior vice president for global public policy & government affairs at the Software & Information Industry Association, which represents major tech players including Adobe, Apple and Google, said it’s important that future legislative efforts follow “the bipartisan spirit” of Schumer’s AI Insight Forums. 

“It should promote and incentivize safe and trustworthy AI, mitigate potential harms to rights and safety, while allowing for continued innovation,” Lekas told FedScoop. “We encourage Congress to pass legislation establishing a nationwide standard for AI that advances public trust in the digital ecosystem, consumer confidence in AI tools, continued innovation, and U.S. competitiveness. And it should begin that effort by passing a comprehensive federal privacy bill, because AI is only as good and reliable as the data that goes into it.”

Editor’s note 1/11/2024 at 4:50 p.m.: This story was updated to reflect the rebranding of the Lincoln Network to the Foundation for American Innovation.

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Terry Carpenter will take over the key role of CIO and CTO for the NSF, marking the establishment of a new independent and consolidated Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). 

Dorothy Aronson is NSF’s new chief data officer and assistant CIO for artificial intelligence, while Dan Hofherr is the new chief information security officer and assistant CIO for operations, and Teresa Guillot is assistant CIO for enterprise services. 

“I am confident that the reorganization of our IT functions will propel NSF to new heights of innovation and efficiency,” NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said in a statement. “This strategic initiative reflects our solid commitment to delivering unparalleled IT services and solutions across the agency.” 

The IT revitalization within NSF is meant to support the mission of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which provides roughly $52.7 billion to explicitly drive semiconductor research, development, manufacturing, and workforce development in the U.S. 

Of that total, $39 billion is included for manufacturing incentives and $13.2 billion is for R&D and workforce development, according to the White House.

The establishment of the new OCIO office signifies NSF’s aim to adapt to evolving industry best practices and cutting-edge technologies using new tools, resources and expertise.

It also supports NSF’s push to further President Joe Biden’s priorities for federal agencies to use AI responsibly and protect information through cybersecurity practices. 

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The Tech Hubs program, which was enacted as part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and received $500 million in funding at the end of last year, is an economic development initiative that seeks to build and support new innovation centers and research and development capacity across the U.S.

The designated Tech Hubs include facilities focused on safe and effective autonomous systems initiatives in Montana and Oklahoma; quantum computing projects in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin; semiconductor manufacturing in Texas, Oregon, Vermont and New York; and energy transition initiatives in Louisiana, Idaho, Wyoming and Florida.

These hubs can now apply to receive between $40 million and $70 million each under the program’s $500 million available funding.

“The U.S. will lead the world again in innovation across the board,” Biden said at a White House event announcing the decision.

The new initiative is intended to spread the benefits of the tech sector growth in terms of high-quality jobs and opportunities beyond traditional hubs such as Austin, Boston, New York and San Francisco.

“Those tech ecosystems are concentrated in just a few places around the country,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. “They don’t reflect the full potential of our country … They don’t corner the market on great ideas.”

The Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is in charge of the Tech Hubs program and has been given new authority to designate the hubs and award funding for the initiative’s strategy development and implementation.

According to Commerce, it will do this by providing funding to regions where it deems that investment can help to spur a self-sustaining, globally competitive technology industry over the next 10 years.

“The phase 1 designees and grant recipients reflect the diverse technological industries growing here at home and are symbols of American innovation and opportunity,” said Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves in a statement regarding the announcement. “The Tech Hubs program will provide them tools and resources to drive economic growth across the nation, which Americans will feel for generations to come.”

Each region applying for the funding will be required to have a partnership that includes one or more companies, a state development agency, worker training programs, a university and state and local government leaders. 

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The National Semiconductor Technology Center, which is expected to launch this fall, was a key component of the CHIPS Act that focused on promoting semiconductor manufacturing. The members announced Wednesday will now set up the nonprofit that will operate the NSTC and hire executive leaders.

“The members of the board of trustees will help to establish an NSTC that is visionary, agile and responsive to the needs of the semiconductor ecosystem,” Laurie E. Locascio, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, said in a release.

New members of the board from the private sector include retired Intel Corp. CEO Craig Barrett and retired IBM technology leader Nick Donofrio, as well as Donna Dubinsky, the former CEO of handheld electronics companies Palm Computing and Handspring; and Robin Abrams, former CEO of microcontroller product provider ZILOG Inc.

Board members from academia and research include Erica Fuchs, professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University; Jim Plummer, a professor of electrical engineering and former dean at Stanford University; and Reggie Brothers, principal with MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the former CEO of BigBear.ai and former CTO of Peraton.

The announced board members also have experience in government. Brothers was previously Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security and served in roles at the Department of Defense and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Dubinsky recently worked as a senior counselor to the Commerce Secretary.

According to a press release from the Department of Commerce‘s NIST, the agency “expects to enter into a funding agreement with the newly formed nonprofit so that it can begin to operate NSTC.”

The center is one of several research and development programs established under the CHIPS Act that is being overseen by NIST’s CHIPS Research and Development Office. The others are the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program, the CHIPS R&D Metrology Program and up to three new Manufacturing USA institutes focused on semiconductors.

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The National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) is an important component of the research and development aspects of the CHIPS and Science Act, a major statute signed into law last year that’s aimed at promoting semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.

In a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to examine progress on the implementation of the statute, Raimondo called the NSTC the “centerpiece” of the agency’s work in developing a program “to meet the unique challenges of building a sustained R&D to manufacturing pipeline.” That center, she said, is expected “to launch this fall.”

Commerce didn’t respond to a request for comment on more specific timing.

The NSTC’s focus is centered on three high-level goals: furthering U.S. semiconductor leadership; easing the process of moving a design idea to commercialization; and building and sustaining a semiconductor workforce, according to a paper outlining the vision for the center published by the National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) in April.

During the hearing, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., asked Raimondo what the center would do to encourage innovation in emerging technologies like AI. Thune noted that he wants to make sure the appropriate guardrails are in place for that technology, while also avoiding any stifling of its growth.

“I think the NSTC will have collaborations with universities and companies to lead the next wave of research and development and startups so we continue to maintain our AI lead,” Raimondo said. 

She added that “all AI is going to be powered by AI chips.”

Raimondo emphasized that the nation has to preserve and extend its lead with AI, which involves protecting itself from “the downsides.” She cited NIST’s framework for developers to use when creating AI algorithms, which is voluntary, and compared it to the recent commitments that big-name developers have made with the Biden administration. 

In addition to forecasting the launch of the center, Raimondo said Commerce has received over 500 statements of interest from companies across 42 states regarding potential CHIPS Act incentives for industry facilities that would support the NSTC. 

The agency released its second funding opportunity seeking applications for small-scale projects related to semiconductor facilities last week, Raimondo said. It also expects to announce another funding opportunity for R&D facilities in the coming months.

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Lewis, a materials scientist, moves to the agency from Microsoft, where he developed a partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense to secure a domestic supply of advanced semiconductors.

In the new role, he will provide leadership of the research and development team that supports the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC). In a press release announcing Lewis’ appointment, Commerce said it anticipates that the new center will be operated by a “new, purpose-built, independent, nonprofit entity.” 

Prior to joining Microsoft, Lewis was the deputy director of the Microsystems Technology Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Pentagon, a role in which he oversaw a large portfolio of microelectronics programs.

Lewis is an author of more than 30 peer-reviewed journal publications and has been awarded 11 U.S. patents.  

The CHIPS for America R&D Office is responsible for four integrated programs that the U.S. government hopes will ensure American semiconductor manufacturers remain globally competitive: the NSTC, the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program, up to three new Manufacturing USA institutes dedicated to semiconductors and the CHIPS R&D Metrology Program.   

The NSTC aims to support and extend U.S. leadership in semiconductor research, design, engineering, advanced manufacturing, and the semiconductor workforce. 

News of Lewis’s appointment comes after Commerce last month appointed five new technologists to boost research and development within its CHIPS Act-focused offices.

The agency named Lora Weiss as director, Eric Lin as deputy director, Neil Alderoty as executive officer, Richard-Duane Chambers as associate director for integration and policy and Marla Dowell as director of the CHIPS research and development metrology program within Commerce’s CHIPS Research and Development Office.

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The agency has named Lora Weiss as director, Eric Lin as deputy director, Neil Alderoty as executive officer, Richard-Duane Chambers as associate director for integration and policy and Marla Dowell as director of the CHIPS research and development metrology program within Commerce’s CHIPS Research and Development Office.

The CHIPS Research and Development Office is one of two offices at the Department of Commerce created by the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. It is responsible for programs focused on making American semiconductor manufacturers globally competitive and works alongside the CHIPS Program Office, which is responsible for semiconductor incentives.

Weiss joins the Department of Commerce office from Pennsylvania State University, where she is senior vice president for research and oversees the research of 12 academic colleges, seven interdisciplinary research institutes and the university’s Applied Research Lab.

Lin was previously interim director of the CHIPS Research and Development Office, and before that was director of the NIST Material Measurement Laboratory.

Alderoty has worked at NIST for more than 30 years, most recently as executive administrator of the Commerce subagency’s Material Measurement Laboratory.

Chambers joins the CHIPS R&D Office from the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, where he served as a senior professional staff member.

Dowell takes up her new appointment after most recently serving as director of the NIST Communications Technology Laboratory.

Commenting on the appointments, NIST Director Laurie Locascio said: “To make the CHIPS R&D programs into bustling centers of innovation, we need the country’s best people to execute our vision. These are the experts who will propel CHIPS for America and the nation’s semiconductor sector forward.”

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo added: “These leaders bring exactly the depth and breadth of organizational, programmatic and technical leadership experience that CHIPS needs to stand up new, transformational R&D programs.” 

Locascio announced the appointments during remarks made to the Industrial Advisory Committee on June 6.

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