By Guy Page

A bill co-sponsored by Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) would fund the use of artificial intelligence for climate and atmospheric monitoring and other, unspecified, related projects.

S.3888, the ‘‘Transformational Artificial intelligence to Modernize the Economy against Extreme Weather Act’’ or the ‘‘TAME Extreme Weather Act,’’ was introduced on March 6, has been referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The lead sponsor is Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). The other two sponsors besides Welch are Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, Ben Ray (D-NM) and Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA). 

The bill is “aimed at promoting the adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence to better predict and respond to extreme weather,” Schatz said in a March 8 press statement. 

“Extreme weather is only getting more severe and more frequent. We need to use every tool at our disposal—including artificial intelligence—to save lives and livelihoods. By requiring federal agencies to use AI in proactive ways, such as boosting grid resiliency and improving weather forecasts, this bill will allow us to better predict and respond to extreme weather events and mitigate their impacts,” said Welch in the March 8 press statement.

The bill would, according to its introduction, “mandate the use of artificial intelligence by Federal agencies to adapt to extreme weather by improving weather forecasts; increasing the resilience of electrical grids and transmission; strengthening analytic capacity to guide where to deploy resources to respond to and mitigate harm from extreme weather; and strengthening public-private partnerships in highly technical, high-risk, and high-reward fields.”

AI will support enforcement of domestic and international law, the bill states.

Under the bill, the federal government “shall develop a program to use artificial intelligence to analyze global atmospheric observations in order to—

(1) improve atmospheric dispersion models;

(2) detect leaks from fuel transmission infrastructure;

(3) detect, monitor, and track smoke and other emissions from wildfires;

(4) identify significant changes in global greenhouse gas emissions; (5) infer the geographical and production sources of emissions; and

(6) support the enforcement of applicable domestic and international laws.

More specifically – “LAW ENFORCEMENT.—The Administrator shall collaborate with Federal, international, State, local, and Tribal law enforcement entities to ensure the program developed under subsection (a) delivers outputs that support  law enforcement activities.”

S.3888 also addresses “global atmospheric chemistry training.”

“The Administrator shall gather observational data and synthetic data on the atmosphere and its chemical components collected across the Federal Government to develop, curate, and regularly update a global atmospheric chemistry training dataset for purposes of training the artificial intelligence technology.”

The bill also approves public-private investment in AI forecasting and unspecified “related fields.”

The bill directs the government to “adopt novel co-investment strategies with the private sector and academic sector, including non-Federal Government contributions to resource and support high-risk, high-return research and development in environmental forecasting, data science, artificial intelligence, and related fields.”

National security disclaimer

The bill requires its findings be made public, except that the government “may withhold any model, code, or data developed or used under this title if the Administrator determines doing so to be necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States.

Sharing data with intelligence agencies of foreign governments

The bill also authorizes sharing of data with foreign governments in order to stop the sale of illegal wood products – perhaps a reference to international trade involved with deforestation. 

Power grid stabilization

S.3888 also would authorize the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to “use artificial intelligence to optimize energy grids and transmission” by minimizing power outages and surges.

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