A bill being introduced Wednesday in Congress would establish new government teams to improve technical talent in federal agencies, with a focus on artificial intelligence.
The AI Talent Act, led by Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., aims to help the federal government recruit and retain top-tier AI and technical workers, boosting government capacity to apply the fast-moving technologies to real-world issues.
“This is about getting AI and technical talent into all of the different aspects of the government that we now need,” Jacobs said in an interview. “We need people who understand how to apply these technologies, who also understand the risks and benefits and are thinking about the right approach to deployment.”
The act would create specialized talent teams within agencies and at the cross-agency Office of Personnel Management dedicated to recruiting candidates with AI backgrounds and technical abilities. The act would establish centralized resources and talent pools to ease sharing of information about promising candidates among agencies.
The act would also emphasize the role of skills-based examinations and certifications to evaluate candidates’ AI knowledge and abilities.
“This is a bicameral, bipartisan bill, and there are so few of those bills these days,” Jacobs said, highlighting both Republican and Democrat sponsors in the House and the Senate. She said excitement surrounding the bill was not surprising given its focus on “something as important as our government capacity to be ready for this new AI world.”
The bill is sponsored by a cross-party coalition including Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., who co-led the Bipartisan House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence. The task force’s final 253-page report, which laid out a variety of recommendations for congressional action on AI, called for legislation like the AI Talent Bill “to support the development of AI roles in federal agencies.”
“This bipartisan bill helps ensure the United States continues to lead the world in innovation by bringing the best equipped people into public service at the right time,” Obernolte said in a statement. “The AI Talent Act gives federal agencies the tools they need to recruit experts with real, demonstrated skills so we can responsibly adopt AI and strengthen mission delivery across government.”
While several recent presidential administrations have tried to increase the pool of technical talent in government through executive orders or pilot programs, the AI Talent Act, if it is signed into law, would be the first federal statute to specifically create durable AI talent pipelines.
President Barack Obama in 2014 established the United States Digital Service, which was meant to bring together top data scientists, engineers and designers to tackle important technical problems.
In 2021, the General Services Administration launched the U.S. Digital Corps “to not only bring immediate innovation but also to serve as a continuing resource for government digital transformation.” The corps functions as a two-year fellowship, during which technologists are placed in various federal agencies like the Agriculture Department and the National Institutes of Health to create better government services.
Unlike the Digital Corps, the proposed AI Talent Act would specifically focus on AI, seek to streamline the hiring process for permanent positions and foster increased interagency coordination on technical hiring protocols.
President Joe Biden tried to increase the capacity for government agencies to use and embrace AI by launching “a Federal Government-wide AI talent surge to accelerate the placement of key AI and AI-enabling talent in high-priority areas” as part of his October 2023 Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. That hiring push is no longer active under its AI.gov branding.
Because the AI Talent Act does not stem from an executive order, its efforts would be less susceptible to the actions and opinions of future administrations.
A central sticking point in hiring AI talent has been the allure of jobs in industry. Many AI researchers, engineers and experts opt to work in the private sector instead of government because of AI companies’ lofty pay packages, equity and generous benefit arrangements.
“We’re never going to be able to compete one-to-one on salary or indoor climbing gyms,” Jacobs said. “But there are a lot of people who are looking for jobs they find fulfilling and are working on issues that they care about.”
“By making the process easier and more tailored to AI and tech workers, we can help those people who are not necessarily looking to be in the private sector,” she added.
The bill is also endorsed by several nonprofit organizations, including the Bipartisan Policy Center and Encode AI.
“Modernizing the way government recruits AI and technology talent is crucial for national competitiveness and public trust,” Sunny Gandhi, vice president of political affairs at youth advocacy group Encode AI, said in a news release accompanying the act’s introduction. “This bill takes the smartest lessons from industry — skills-based assessments, pooled hiring, and subject-matter expertise — and puts them to work for the public good.”
