Artificial Intelligence is becoming more present every day. Some decisions that influence our lives are made by AI algorithms and we don’t even have any idea. With that in mind, the United States Federal Government has been aiming their efforts towards the use of AI.
On November 17th, 2020, the White House issued a memorandum for the heads of executive departments and agencies which was a guidance for Regulation of AI Applications. It encourages innovations and the growth of AI applications at the same time that it protects efficiency, safety, fairness, welfare, and transparency.
The Government aims to increase public trust and participation in AI by promoting awareness and making it possible for the public to participate in all stages of rulemaking possible regarding this subject. Also, by increasing transparency and disclosure by teaching people how AI applications work and how they make a decision.
One very important point of the memorandum is the concern for fairness and non-discrimination of AI. It points out that AI can reduce discriminations produced by human subjectivity but at the same time can introduce bias and produce discriminatory outcomes.
This memorandum comes after Executive Order 13859, ordered on February 11th, 2019, that aims to maintain the US on the leadership in AI. To do so the US aims to utilize AI as a tool for economic growth, improve security, and increase the quality of life. To do so, the Executive Order intents to reduce barriers to the development and use of AI applications.
In the end, the memorandum has the objective to reach an equal response and action regarding AI applications, reaching consistency, even to make possible interagency cooperation.
Now, on December 3rd, 2020 the US President Donald Trump has ordered a new Executive Order that promotes the use of trustworthy artificial intelligence in the federal government. This order states that AI is being used by Federal Agencies on: “regulatory compliance; combat fraud, waste, and abuse committed against taxpayers; identify information security threats and assess trends in related illicit activities; enhance the security and interoperability of Federal Government information systems; facilitate review of large datasets; streamline processes for grant applications; model weather patterns; facilitate predictive maintenance; and much more”.
Another very important point of this new Executive Order is the principles that the agencies need to follow when using AI, such as: Lawful and respectful of our Nation’s values, Purposeful and performance-driven, Accurate, reliable, and effective, safe, secure, and resilient, Understandable, Responsible and traceable, Regularly monitored, Transparent and Accountable.
In conclusion, with both Executive Orders and the White House Memorandum, it is sure that the US recognizes that Artificial Intelligence will be the focus of technology of the next few years, and it is a must to be in the frontline of the technology, especially with future competition with China for the AI market.