ICYMI: Kelly Discusses his New AI for America Roadmap in Live Conversation with Axios

In case you missed it, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly joined Axios for their live AI+ Summit in D.C. to discuss his new roadmap to make AI work for all Americans, not just a few big companies. His AI for America proposal addresses the often-ignored question of 'how to pay for it,' making sure companies do their part so Americans aren't left behind.

Sen. Kelly speaks with Ina Fried at Axios AI+ Summit.

Click here to watch the full conversation. See key excerpts below:

On the proposal's AI Horizon Fund…

"This should be thought of as a partnership between AI companies, the companies that benefit from AI, and the public. So, a private-public partnership where they [AI companies] have a contribution. The reason they need to be able to make this contribution is it is important to their own success. We cannot put on the backs of just the taxpayers all the, as an example, infrastructure investments required to do this."

On the importance of the U.S. leading AI innovation:

"I think that AI is going to be huge for our economy. And we have a competition here with […] another rather huge country out there, China, that we often compete with in technology. And we've got some challenges we're going to face. And if we don't have the right framework in place to lead the world in AI, they will, and we will fall behind."

On releasing AI for America now…

"We don't want to wait another five or ten years. We need to have a plan for what this country is going to look like ten, twenty, thirty, years in the future and that starts now. I think there are great examples where we've had successes. The CHIPS and Science Act […] where we've invested in an industry, we've made the right investments. […] That's why we should be thinking about this, collaborating with industry, with unions, with universities, to figure out what are the guardrails we need to put into place and what programs do we need to make this successful."

On why AI companies should work to strengthen our workforce…

"The biggest thing is coming up with a plan for how you're going to retrain people for other jobs. We do not want to find ourselves in a situation where 10 million people have lost their jobs to AI, and they don't have a good option. That's not good for any of us."

Read the full plan here.