A group of federal agencies issued a joint statement Tuesday assuring Americans they are prepared to regulate the fast-moving artificial intelligence industry.
I’m not breathing a sigh of relief just yet, but the government’s attention to this matter is, at least, encouraging.
With the outsize power of algorithm-driven social media platforms and the rapid development of AI computer programs known as chatbots, many observers — me included — have been urging the federal government to play a larger role in restraining the AI industry before it gets too unwieldy and, frankly, dystopian.
Signed by leaders from the Justice Department, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, Tuesday’s statement is essentially meant to inform the public that federal agencies are mindful of the improvements AI technology can enable and equally aware of the harm this technology can cause.
“We take seriously our responsibility to ensure that these rapidly evolving automated systems are developed and used in a manner consistent with federal laws,” the leaders wrote, “and each of our agencies has previously expressed concern about potentially harmful uses of automated systems.”
It’s a timely statement given the abundance of news stories about unsettling AI uses these days, from IRS algorithms that appear to target Black people for audits disproportionately to algorithm-reliant housing organizations’ facilitating housing discrimination to AI-powered facial recognition and biometric surveillance tools that disproportionately target Black and brown people.
The topline version of the agencies’ letter? “We’re on this, y’all.”
The FTC, for example, reminded companies it may be illegal for them “to use automated tools that have discriminatory impacts, to make claims about AI that are not substantiated, or to deploy AI before taking steps to assess and mitigate risks.”
The EEOC reminded…
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