White House Releases Blueprint for Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights

On behalf of President Joe Biden, the White House has released five principles that it believes should guide the design, use, and deployment of automated systems to protect the American public in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).

Called The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, the White House hopes that it will serve as a guide to protect people from real threats to society that are caused by leaning heavily on automated, AI-driven systems.

“Automated systems have brought about extraordinary benefits, from technology that helps farmers grow food more efficiently and computers that predict storm paths, to algorithms that can identify diseases in patients. These tools now drive important decisions across sectors, while data is helping to revolutionize global industries,” the Office of Science and Technology Policy writes.

“[But] this important progress must not come at the price of civil rights or democratic values.”

The White House outlines five principles that it believes should be used as a guideline whenever automated systems have the potential to meaningfully impact the public’s rights, opportunities or access to critical needs: Safe and Effective Systems, Algorithmic Discrimination Protections, Data Privacy, Notice and Explanation, and Human Alternatives, Consideration, and Fallback.

This AI Bill of Rights is supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, which published a statement in conjunction with and in support of its announcement.

“Just as our Constitution’s Bill of Rights protects our most basic civil rights and liberties from the government, in the 21st century, we need a ‘bill of rights’ to protect us against the use of faulty and discriminatory artificial intelligence that infringes upon our core rights and freedoms,” ReNika Moore, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Program, says.

“Unchecked, artificial intelligence exacerbates existing disparities and creates new roadblocks for already-marginalized groups, including communities of color and people with disabilities. When AI is developed or used in ways that don’t adequately take into account existing inequities or is used to make decisions for which it is inappropriate, we see real-life harms such as biased, harmful predictions leading to the wrongful arrest of Black people, jobs unfairly denied to women, and disparate targeting of children of color for removal from their families. The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights is an important step in addressing the harms of AI.”

The Blueprint for an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights is designed to cover all AI-driven technology and automated systems that have the potential to impact the American public’s civil rights and liberties, equal opportunity, or access to critical resources or services. All five principles are described in detail on the White House website. The full blueprint can also be downloaded from the government website along with a guide on how to apply it to varying AI solutions.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.