The new AI Bill of Rights blueprint addresses potential AI harms for American citizens. (Image Credit: geralt/pixabay)
Last year, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) said the US needed a Bill of Rights for AI. Joe Biden recently released a new AI Bill of Rights blueprint outlining five protections for Americans against AI harms. This also ensures that tech companies deploying AI are held accountable. “These technologies are causing real harms in the lives of Americans—harms that run counter to our core democratic values, including the fundamental right to privacy, freedom from discrimination, and our basic dignity,” a senior administration official told reporters at a press conference.
The five principles are as follows: citizens should not deal with unsafe and ineffective algorithms, know and control how their data is used, not face discrimination from AI, have the ability to opt out and rely on a human instead, and not worry about AI violating data privacy. Critics claim the plan “lacks teeth,” and the US must enforce tougher AI regulations.
However, the AI Bill of Rights is a nonbinding white paper. So that means it can’t enforce any laws because the OSTP created the blueprint. Rather, it serves as a set of recommendations that tech companies and government agencies can choose to follow. Agencies can still refer to existing rules, preventing automated systems from putting people at unfair disadvantages. Lawmakers will need to decide on proposing new bills.
These principals cited agency studies, academic research, and news reports documenting harms from AI systems, such as facial recognition. These eventually helped with false arrests and discrimination against those seeking a loan and went to a Historically Black College. In addition, the document noted social workers and parents would gain an advantage if they knew child welfare agencies relied on algorithms to determine when families must undergo investigation due to maltreatment.
The paper also failed to mention AI-powered systems funded by the Department of Justice that examined AI bias, harm, and discrimination.
There’s some positivity with the paper as it said AI systems could play a huge role in society by assisting farmers with efficient crop growth or disease identification. “Fueled by the power of American innovation, these tools hold the potential to redefine every part of our society and make life better for everyone. This important progress must not come at the price of civil rights or democratic values,” the paper noted.
Have a story tip? Message me at: http://twitter.com/Cabe_Atwell