More than sixty years after a research group at Dartmouth University launched work on a new field called “Artificial Intelligence,” the United States still lacks a national strategy on artificial intelligence (AI) policy. The increasing urgency of this effort is made clear by the rapid rise of US allies and adversaries.
The European Union is moving forward with two initiatives of far-reaching consequences. The EU Artificial Intelligence Act will establish a comprehensive, risk-based approach to AI regulation when it is adopted in 2023. Many predict that the EU AI Act will extend the “Brussels Effect” across the AI sector as the earlier European data privacy law, the General Data Privacy Regulation, made much of the technology industry.
Robots and Artificial Intelligence
The Council of Europe is developing the first international AI convention with the aim of protecting fundamental rights, democratic institutions, and the rule of law. Like the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (COE) and the Privacy Convention, the AI Convention will be open to ratification by member and non-member states. The COE remains influential, as Canada, Japan, the United States, and several South American countries have signed on.
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China is also moving forward with an aggressive regulatory strategy to complement its goal to be a “global leader in AI by 2030.” China recently continued the GDPR with the Personal Information Protection Law and a new regulation on recommendation algorithms with provisions similar to the EU Digital Services Act. It is likely that the Chinese regulatory model will influence countries in Africa and Asia, which are part of the Belt and Road Initiative, and lead to the “Beijing Effect.” The United States has done an admirable job of maintaining coherent policy in the Executive Branch over the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, highlighting key values and promoting an aggressive research agenda. In the 2019 Executive Order on Sustaining American Leadership in AI, the United States said it would “foster public trust and confidence in AI technologies and protect civil liberties, privacy and American values in their application.” Advancing the Use of AI in the Federal Government established the principles for “the development and use of AI that is consistent with American values and beneficial to the public.”
The United States also played a leading role in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with the development and adoption of the OECD AI Principles, the first global framework for AI policy. Those principles, which emphasize “human-centered and trustworthy” AI, were later adopted by the G-20 nations, and have now been endorsed by more than 50 countries, including Russia and China.
But the US was out of the loop when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the AI Ethics Recommendation, now the most comprehensive framework for global AI policy that addresses emerging issues, such as AI and climate and gender equality. .
“Democratic values” is a key theme as the United States seeks to sharply distinguish between the use of technologies that promote open, pluralistic societies and those that centralize control and enable surveillance. As Secretary Blinken explained last year, “More than anything else, our task is to present and deliver a compelling vision for how to use technology in a way that serves our people, protects our interests and upholds our democratic values .” But absent a legislative agenda or a clear statement of principles, neither allies nor opponents are clear about the objectives of US AI policy.
Robots and Artificial Intelligence
The US has faced similar problems with the Trade and Technology Council (TTC), an effort to align US and EU technology policy around shared values. The TTC set an ambitious agenda on AI for the EU and the US in the fall of 2021, but Ukraine has spent transatlantic priorities, and it remains unclear at this point whether the TTC will recover focus on common AI policy. The first Joint Declaration laid a foundation for cooperation on AI for the EU and the US in the fall of 2021, but Ukraine has spent transatlantic priorities, and it remains unclear at the moment will the TTC regain focus on a common AI policy.
A similar challenge faces EU and US leaders on new rules for transatlantic data flows. After two earlier decisions by Europe’s highest court, finding that the US did not have adequate privacy protections for the transfer of personal data, lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic worried that the flow of data could be stopped, as a commissioner Ireland’s privacy has recently been threatened. . President Biden and President von der Leyen announced an agreement in principle in May, but several months later there is still no public text to review.
To restore leadership in AI policy, the United States should move forward with the policy initiative launched last year by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The science office outlined many risks of AI, including root bias and widespread surveillance, and called for an AI Bill of Rights. OSTP said, “Our country should clarify the rights and freedoms we expect data-driven technologies to respect.” The White House supported the initiative and encouraged Americans to “Join the Effort to Create a Bill of Rights for an Automated Society.”
We strongly support this initiative. After an extensive review of AI policies and practices in 50 countries, we identified the AI Bill of Rights as possibly the most significant AI policy initiative in the United States. But early progress has slowed. The delay has real consequences for Americans who are subjected to automated decision making in their daily lives, with little transparency or accountability. Foreign governments are also looking to US leadership in this rapidly evolving field. Progress on the AI Bill of Rights initiative will help build trust and restore US leadership.
Last year, the Office of Science and Technology Policy made it clear, “Powerful technologies should be required to respect our democratic values and adhere to the central principle that everyone should be treated fairly.” That should be a cornerstone of US national AI policy, and that policy will promote international norms for AI governance.
Marc Rotenberg is President of the Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP), author of the forthcoming Artificial Intelligence Law (West Academic 2023), and Life Member of CFR. Merve Hickok is Director of Research at CAIDP and founder of AIethicist.org
