A group of 16 Democratic lawmakers – led by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. – are pushing President Biden to use the administration’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights as the foundation of his forthcoming AI executive order (EO).
The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights – unveiled last October by the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) – is a voluntary framework intended to help guide organizations on the development and deployment of AI.
Lawmakers are now calling on President Biden to codify OSTP’s AI blueprint in his forthcoming AI EO. OSTP Director Arati Prabhakar recently noted the EO is expected to be released this fall, covering a “very broad” range of issues related to AI.
“With the era of artificial intelligence (AI) promising new innovations, but posing many risks, your forthcoming AI executive order is an important opportunity to establish an ethical framework for the federal government’s role in AI,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote in an Oct. 11 letter addressed to President Biden. “The moment calls for the adoption of strong safeguards on algorithmic discrimination, data privacy, and other fundamental rights. In particular, the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights … would serve as a strong foundation for the executive order.”
“Given your Administration’s farsighted leadership in developing the AI Bill of Rights, we urge you to implement vital near-term safeguards on the use of AI by incorporating the AI Bill of Rights into the forthcoming AI executive order,” they added.
OSTP’s document, now more than a year old, outlines the Biden administration’s vision for how all organizations – from government agencies to companies – can build or deploy automated systems that are rooted in democratic values and protect civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy.
“By turning the AI Bill of Rights from a non-binding statement of principles into federal policy, your Administration would send a clear message to both private actors and federal regulators: AI systems must be developed with guardrails,” the letter concludes. “As a substantial purchaser, user, and regulator of AI tools, as well as a significant funder of state-level programs, the federal government’s commitment to the AI Bill of Rights would show that fundamental rights will not take a back seat in the AI era.”
Earlier this year, House Republicans expressed concerns about the White House’s AI Bill of Rights, noting that it’s duplicative to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) AI Risk Management Framework released in January.
White House leadership has said that both NIST and OSTP’s voluntary frameworks are meant to complement each other.
