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Witness warns AI is accelerating scientific work and urges committee oversight and standards leadership for NIST
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Summary
Dr. Foster testified that emerging AI agents are rapidly changing how science is done, suggested NIST oversight may be central, and urged Congress to set safeguards and standards while recognizing private-sector investment outpaces federal funding.
Dr. Foster told the House Science, Space and Technology Committee that artificial intelligence is reshaping scientific research and that Congress should prioritize oversight, standards and coordination with agencies such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
“This is coming at us, you know, like a freight train,” Foster said, describing AI systems that can produce in hours what small research teams would previously take years to do. He warned that early AI agents may both execute lab work and “actually do the strategic planning” of research.
Foster said oversight of NIST could be especially important because NIST historically leads on technical standards. He also pointed to the need for “bumpers and safeguards” and said private-sector investment in AI will outpace what the federal government can spend, so policymakers must “plan around that.”
Committee members discussed the intersection of standards, consumer protections and new technology. Representative McCormick praised Foster’s work on digital identity and called a secure digital ID a bipartisan growth opportunity; Foster noted that NIST’s technical standards enabled capabilities now used for digital IDs and cited international uptake of NIST standards.
Foster described a policy vision in which citizens could have access to an AI “on your side” — a tool that protects consumers from unfair commercial practices — and said government could play a role in aligning commercial incentives toward that outcome. He also urged the committee to consider competition issues in space launch and other technology markets to avoid single-vendor dominance.
Foster’s testimony emphasized both the rapid technical changes from AI and the need for standards and measured oversight to preserve scientific integrity and public trust.
