The White House’s AI guidelines aim to mitigate the harm

Oct 4 (Reuters) – The White House on Tuesday proposed a non-binding Artificial Intelligence (AI) Bill of Rights that it said would help parents, patients and workers prevent harm from the growing use of automation in education, health and employment.

The Biden administration’s proposal joins hundreds of other guidelines and policy frameworks published by tech companies, industry associations and other government agencies in recent years.

Like the others, the White House version suggests numerous practices that developers and users of artificial intelligence software should voluntarily follow to prevent the technology from unfairly harming people.

In some cases, algorithms for healthcare delivery have not prioritized the needs of black patients, and facial recognition has been developed for school policing, despite the potential for poor performance on darker skin tones.

“These technologies are causing real harm to American lives, harm that runs counter to our fundamental democratic values, including our fundamental right to privacy, freedom from discrimination and our basic dignity,” a senior administration official told reporters. .

Some companies have put ethical safeguards into practice. Read More However, administration officials have said they are concerned about the emergence of new problems with artificial intelligence.

The Biden administration’s move comes at a time when the European Union is moving toward regulating high-risk systems, while the United States is no closer to a comprehensive law to regulate artificial intelligence.

Tuesday’s announcement did not include proposals for new laws. Instead, officials said individual regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission, would continue to apply existing rules to edge systems.

The White House proposal says everyone in America should be protected from unsafe or ineffective systems, algorithmic discrimination and abusive data collection. They should also have the right to notice and explanations about the artificial intelligence programs they encounter.

The Bill of Rights also calls on companies, government agencies and others adopting AI to conduct significant testing and to monitor and publish the results so that all stakeholders can understand what is a “reasonable starting point” for action on issues, senior administration officials said.

Report by Paresh Dave and Nandita Bose. Editor: Leslie Adler

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.