The growing influence of artificial intelligence in health care was on display Wednesday as House lawmakers peppered invited witnesses with pointed questions about how technology might influence seemingly disparate topics like drug development, experimental Medicare models, and teen mental health.

The hearing description by the Energy and Commerce Committee’s health subcommittee promised a broad examination of the potential to advance American health care with AI, and members took the opportunity to dive into the topics closest to their interests. The questions over more than three hours revealed possible directions for policy as lawmakers consider whether — and how — to pass laws regulating AI’s use in health care. 

Here are five concerns that came up.

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(PVAMU) – As Prairie View A&M University and Texas Southern University prepared to face off in theLabor Day Classic, the two rivals were also joining forces off the field. Together, they’re leading a $2.2 million research project that uses artificial intelligence to speed up the discovery of new materials — a breakthrough with the potential to transform manufacturing and defense technology.

The project, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Air Force Office of Scientific Research, establishes the Center for Scientific Machine Learning for Material Sciences. Texas Southern is leading the grant, with Prairie View A&M receiving $600,000 to guide a major part of the work. They are joined by Texas A&M University and the University of Michigan.

At TSU, the project is led by Dr. Yunjiao Wang, principal investigator, and Dr. Daniel Vrinceanu, co-principal investigator. At PVAMU, the effort is headed by Dr. Noushin Ghaffari, principal investigator, and Dr. Lin Li, co-principal investigator. Together, these scientists are building advanced machine learning tools to predict, optimize, and simulate new materials with greater speed and accuracy.

So what does this research mean? Materials science is the study of how everyday materials, such as metals, ceramics, and polymers, can be designed or improved for use in products like airplanes, cars, medical devices, and electronics. Machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, allows computers to recognize patterns in massive sets of data and make predictions. By combining the two, researchers can discover better, stronger, and lighter materials faster than ever before.

At the center of this work is the electron beam powder bed fusion (E-Beam) platform at Texas A&M University, a state-of-the-art 3D printing technology for metals managed in Dr. Mohsen Taheri’s lab. By pairing this equipment with data from sensors and advanced computer models, including deep neural networks, the team aims to predict how materials will behave and perform long before they’re ever produced.

Beyond advancing science, the project is designed to open doors for students. Both Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern will provide hands-on research experiences, summer workshops, and mentorship to prepare the next generation of engineers and data scientists. These opportunities are especially critical for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), where representation in high-tech research fields is growing but still limited.

So, while PVAMU and TSU may battle it out on the gridiron, they’re proving that when it comes to innovation and education, they’re playing on the same team.

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein on Tuesday signed an executive order launching a statewide artificial intelligence framework. The order creates an AI leadership council, an AI accelerator at the Department of Information Technology, and oversight teams in each state agency.

The council, which includes government officials like state Chief Information Officer Teena Piccione, will act as an advisory board to the governor and state agencies on the use of AI in government, develop training programs and promoting AI literacy and fraud prevention for the public.

In a press release, Stein said the move is aimed at boosting economic growth and efficiency while ensuring responsible adoption. She pointed to major investments, like Amazon’s planned $10 billion AI innovation campus in Richmond County, as evidence of the state’s growing role in the tech economy.

“AI has the potential to transform how we work and live, carrying with it both extraordinary opportunities and real risks,” Stein said in the release. “Our state will be stronger if we are equipped to take on these challenges responsibly. I am looking forward to this council helping our state effectively deploy AI to enhance government operations, drive economic growth, and improves North Carolinians’ lives.”

With this move, North Carolina’s joins dozens of other states working to establish their own AI rules and strategies in recent years. Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington last year created task forces to explore ways AI can make state government more efficient.

The Colorado legislature, meanwhile, recently voted to delay implementing the state’s AI Act until the end of June next year, five months after the law was originally to go into effect.

In April, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new initiative that integrates generative AI technologies across state government, including aiding the Department of Transportation’s efforts to reduce traffic congestion and helping the Department of Tax and Fee Administration streamline its customer service systems.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves ordered agencies in January to appoint AI coordinators and develop policies stressing fairness, transparency and accountability.

Ohio has turned to AI for education, requiring all public schools to adopt AI policies by 2026, with model guidelines due at the end of this year.