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President Biden Issues Executive Order for AI Oversight

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On Monday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order covering a wide range of topics related to artificial intelligence, paving the way for new government regulations and funding.

The 111-page order covers multiple facets of AI and areas of concern or development, including civil rights, cybersecurity, discrimination, global competition, and a push for establishing federal AI jobs.

A senior White House official, who wished to remain anonymous, reportedly told NBC News that the potential uses of AI are so vast that effective regulations must cover a lot of ground. He also underscored the need for “significant bipartisan legislation.”

“AI policy is like running into a decathlon, and there’s 10 different events here, and we don’t have the luxury of just picking ‘we’re just going to do safety’ or ‘we’re just going to do equity’ or ‘we’re just going to do privacy.’ You have to do all of these things.”

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The order expands on a July nonbinding agreement between seven of the most prominent U.S. technology companies developing AI. The agreement required the companies to hire outside experts to identify weaknesses in their systems. The government can legally require companies to disclose the results of those safety tests under the Defense Production Act.

The Department of Commerce will also be required to develop guidelines for properly “watermarking” AI content, such as “deepfake” videos and ChatGPT-generated essays.

In an interview with NBC News, the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence co-director Fei-Fei Li stressed the importance of government funding for AI to solve society’s pressing issues.

“The public sector holds a unique opportunity in terms of data and interdisciplinary talent to cure cancer, cure rare diseases, to map out biodiversity at a global scale, to understand and predict wildfires, to find climate solutions, to supercharge our teachers. There’s so much the public sector can do, but all of this is right now starved because we are severely lacking in resources.”

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Some of the other topics covered in the order are geared toward anticipating and mitigating real-world problems that may arise from the widespread implementation of AI.

For instance, it asks the Department of Labor to address the potential for AI to cause job losses; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development to address how AI may exacerbate discrimination in banking and housing sectors; and the Office of Management and Budget, and others, to determine how the government can use AI without jeopardizing privacy rights.

The AI Now Institute managing director, Sarah Myers West, praised President Biden for including ethical concerns in the executive order. The nonprofit focuses on the societal implications of artificial intelligence use.

“It’s great to see the White House set the tone on the issues that matter most to the public: labor, civil rights, protecting privacy, promoting competition. This underscores you can’t deal with the future risks of AI without adequately dealing with the present. The key to looking forward will be to ensure strong enforcement as companies attempt to set a self-regulatory tone: industry cannot be left to lead the conversation on how to adequately address the effects of AI on the broader public.”

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Silicon Valley Looks Set to Have Stricter Laws and Regulations Imposed

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Silicon Valley’s ability to operate without the confinements of the government’s regulations seems to be ending. Technology executives have been questioned at several hearings throughout 2019, with federal regulators instilling record fines of firms in the area. The lawmakers have declared action throughout 2020 on several issues including online privacy, competition, and bias as well as encryption.

American technology organizations including Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple are preparing for higher levels of federal scrutiny with Rep. Zoe Lofgren commenting that “as the internet companies matured without a lot of regulation, some issues have emerged where attention is needed.”

Lofgren, a Democrat who has been representing Silicon Valley since 1994 and introduced an online privacy bill, also acknowledged that she believes it is “fair enough to examine what kind of rules should be set in certain elements of the tech economy.”

It seems that Washington has been captivated not only with those in the technology industry, but also the companies that have increased economic growth. Not only did Washington seem to appreciate being connected with such a youthful and growing market, they also utilized them by creating new tools so they could reach their voters which in turn was essential for the political campaigning we have seen in recent years.

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However, the public are starting to react negatively to the way these companies are using their personal data and the government are threatening sanctions including fines when an organization violates their users’ privacy or if they attempt to curb their competition.

In the last year the Federal Trade Commission issued fines worth a staggering $5 billion to Facebook due to them “deceiving users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information.” But Facebook were not the only company to be fined, with Google receiving a $170 million fine after they violated children’s privacy on YouTube, a company that Google also owns.

However, Americans could actually gain more control regarding their own online data, which would reduce the ability for companies to collect their information, with specified laws; including the ones that Lofgren has proposed. These laws would put limits on what companies can and cannot do with users data, and reduce the amount of advertising they can sell; specifically targeted advertising which currently keeps the internet free.

Both Republicans and Democrats have slammed the idea of “Big Tech” and it seems that the pressure will continue to increase throughout the next twelve months.

President and chief executive of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group – who represents the majority of the technology firms in the area – Carl Guardino commented:

“Whenever the word ‘Big’ is placed before your industry, it’s not a good thing. It’s now ‘Big Tech’ and you know it’s not used as a term of endearment.”

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It’s not just American users of the technology that can see issues, foreign users do too. Washington is currently threatening to disband large companies, such as Facebook, and Elizabeth Warren – a Democratic Party presidential candidate – is allegedly putting together a bill that would see the country’s rules regarding competition and antitrust become stricter.

There are also talks that the Federal Trade Commission is looking into whether they can stop further amalgamation of Instagram and Whatsapp by Facebook with the theory that if they can stop it now, they will be stopping the potential requirement to dismantle a social network giant in the future.

The potential dangers of the workings of the technology companies seem to have finally been seen by Washington and they have decided to make sure they stay in control of commerce and communications.

Open Markets Institute deals with antitrust issues and their director of enforcement strategy, Sally Hubbard, commented:

“The traction has definitely really intensified over the last year. There’s also just a growing awareness that these companies are causing a wide range of harms, whether it’s harms to our democracy, harms to innovation, harms to entrepreneurship. They are playing the game and controlling it, too.”

However, concern has been growing over the role China appears to be playing in advanced global communications, with many questioning if a country which is seen as authoritarian, can actually be trusted with our data. The American government has already warned other countries to stop working with Chinese companies, specifically the telecommunications leaders Huawei, who has seen their equipment being used to create 5G networks throughout the world.

It seems that these rules could be what is needed to ensure the safety of the people who currently go online. With 4.3 billion people around the world – and a further 900,000 joining the online community each day – it is important that Washington get this issue right as their new laws could not only determine the future of ‘Big Tech’ but also the future of the way we use online communication altogether.