A bill ordering someone to define AI-ready: standards for biological data

1Authorisation rather than amendment

The previous article covered a bill inserting text into existing tax law. This one does something else: instead of rewriting a statute it gives NIST new work. Its referral therefore goes not to a tax committee but to Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

2Four terms to be defined

The bill begins by requiring that the words be settled. Four terms are named for definition.

1. 1Artificial intelligence-readyA dataset generated and formatted so that it can be effectively used for training AI models and supports advances in AI and biotechnology research
2. 2BiomanufacturingThe bill does not define it; NIST would
3. 3BiotechnologyLikewise left to NIST
4. 4Qualified federally funded researchConditions that make research qualify, drawn from the funding awarded, the capability and expertise to generate such datasets, and the size of the dataset

Turning a vague phrase, usable by AI, into a definition an agency can administer is the centre of this bill. Deciding what counts as usable comes before collecting anything.

3Burden is addressed in the text

The text requires the Director to ensure the definitions, standards, resources and frameworks are not overly burdensome on recipients of funding. It also calls for data management resources and cybersecurity frameworks both for the federal departments and agencies that fund such research and for the researchers collecting, cleaning, curating and generating the datasets.

The series closes with a bill referred to several committees at once.