The Biden administration on Tuesday unveiled a new artificial intelligence program intended to shape how federal agencies and other institutions use rapidly evolving technology.
President Biden’s “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights” kicks off a push by federal agencies making recommendations it wants others to follow across society, from schools to colleges. Health care.
The White House plan focuses on a handful of issues, primarily discrimination, privacy, efficiency and safety, explanation and notification, and providing humane alternatives to automation.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the plan released on Tuesday is the basis for guidance his department will distribute to schools to follow next year.
“As we embrace the use of edtech to enhance learning, we recognize that with it comes added responsibility and the need for us to change the way we do business,” Mr. Cardona at the White House. “We are going to publish next year, early 2023, a set of advice and recommendations for schools, for 50 million pupils across the country.”
It is not only the Ministry of Education that is preparing new directions; the Department of Health and Human Services does the same.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said his department is analyzing artificially intelligent systems in hopes of producing a report later this year so people in the healthcare industry know if they’re making fair decisions.
“We know that for the most part the people who are excluded from the health system are low income and of color and so if you use data that you have in abundance, you are probably missing the most key elements and targeting. everyone,” Mr. Becerra said at the White House. “At HHS, we’re currently working on equity primarily by design and doing an analysis of existing AI systems and what they really mean to us.”
As health and education officials prepare the new guidelines, parts of the Biden administration have already made changes to the government‘s use of AI.
For example, the plan released Tuesday says the Transportation Security Administration is implementing a “gender-neutral algorithm” that its body scanner operators will use at airport security checkpoints in response to complaints from transgender people.
“Body scanners, used by the TSA at airport checkpoints, require the operator to select a ‘male’ or ‘female’ scan setting based on the passenger’s gender, but the setting is chosen based on perception by the operator of the passenger’s gender identity,” the plan says. “These scanners are more likely to flag transgender travelers as requiring additional screening by someone. Transgender travelers have described degrading experiences associated with these additional screenings.
The plan released Tuesday is not a new law or executive order, but a white paper from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The bureau, however, believes that additional rules will likely be needed, as the document states that the bureau expects “industry-specific guidance” to create rules for automated systems in various locations such as “part of security school buildings or automated health diagnostic systems”.
