U.S. President Joe Biden has issued an executive order on artificial intelligence (A.I.) that requires new safety assessments and research into the technology’s impact on the labour market.
Highlights of the executive order on A.I., which has the force of law, include the following:
• Creating new safety and security standards for A.I., including by requiring some A.I. companies to share safety test results with the federal government.
• Directing the U.S. Commerce Department to create guidance for A.I. watermarking and creating a cybersecurity program that can make A.I. tools that help identify flaws in critical software.
• Protecting consumer privacy, including by creating guidelines that agencies can use to evaluate privacy techniques used in A.I.
• Advancing equity and civil rights by providing guidance to landlords and federal contractors to help avoid A.I. algorithms furthering discrimination.
• Creating best practices on the appropriate role of A.I. in the justice system, including when the technology is used in sentencing, risk assessments, and crime forecasting.
• Protecting consumers overall by directing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to create a program to evaluate potentially harmful A.I.-related healthcare practices and creating resources on how educators can responsibly use A.I. tools.
• Supporting workers by producing a report on the potential labour market implications of A.I. and studying the ways the federal government can support workers impacted by a disruption to the labour market.
• Promoting innovation and competition by expanding grants for A.I. research in areas like climate change and modernizing the criteria for highly skilled immigrant workers with key expertise to stay in the U.S.
• Working with international partners to implement A.I. standards around the world.
In a news release, the White House said that the executive order on A.I. represents “the strongest set of actions any government in the world has ever taken on A.I. safety, security, and trust.”
The Biden administration added that the new executive order is a step towards concrete regulation of generative A.I. technology and its development.
