Bipartisan Senate bill seeks to leverage AI for new pandemic preparedness program

The Department of Health and Human Services would be required to implement a pandemic preparedness and response program that leverages artificial intelligence under new bipartisan Senate legislation.

That bill (S. 5222), which was introduced Wednesday and announced Thursday, would call on the secretary of HHS to establish a new program called “MedShield” that would protect against future pandemics by aiding collaboration between government and the private sector and use AI in several areas, including detecting pathogens and developing vaccines.

“Given the millions of deaths and trillions of dollars in economic costs resulting from COVID-19, we need to make strategic investments in pandemic prevention and preparedness. I believe AI should play a key role in those efforts,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., the lead sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement included in the release.

According to the release, the legislation requires HHS to operationalize AI in line with a  recommendation from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, an independent commission that made recommendations to Congress and the White House about the technology in 2021. 

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., co-sponsor of the bill and co-chair of the Senate AI Caucus with Rounds, noted the potential benefits of AI for addressing public health crises. “By leveraging AI, our Medshield Act gives us a significant advantage in preparing for the emergence of new biological threats to prevent the next pandemic,” Heinrich said in a statement.

The bill was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.