Raimondo Seeks AI Rules Protecting IP, Human Rights, Privacy

The Commerce Department is prioritizing regulation that protects intellectual property, human rights and privacy without slowing innovation, Secretary Gina Raimondo said Tuesday. Various legislators and officials at a National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence summit called for international cooperation, investment and for setting artificial intelligence standards.

NSCAI’s March report emphasized a need to invest in U.S. AI leadership. The report will be a blueprint for how the U.S. addresses AI challenges and opportunities, said Executive Director Yll Bajraktari. AI will drive improvements in “everything we do,” and the U.S. needs to work with its allies to harness the technology and mitigate downsides, said Raimondo. Commerce plans to play a leading role in crafting regulation in line with U.S. values, she added. She doesn’t want to “overregulate AI and slow down the rate of innovation.” If anything, the U.S. needs to “step on the gas,” she said.

Commerce is working with Congress to pass President Joe Biden’s “bold agenda,” which calls for big investments in R&D, U.S. production of semiconductors and talent, Raimondo said. She backed passage of the Endless Frontier Act or the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (see 2106080074). The Endless Frontier Act will fund key emerging technologies, especially AI, said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. He said he’s working with colleagues in the House to craft a final bill Biden can sign.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., emphasized the need to outcompete Chinese rivals in 5G, including Huawei and ZTE. The market for IoT depends on a robust 5G network, for which China is arguably setting global standards, he said. China will continue to push a surveillance state, using citizens and companies as instruments for the Communist Party, he added. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said China and Russia seek to undermine human rights using AI.

Tech investment isn’t optional, said White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Eric Lander, urging passage of the Endless Frontier Act. He noted strong bipartisan consensus for the need to invest in technologies for the future, and he said the U.S., Japan, India and Australia should work together to ensure data collection practices are in line with shared democratic values.

The recently created EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council is a “vital step” toward harmonizing rules and shared approaches and principles, specifically on the use of AI, said Margrethe Vestager, European Commission executive vice president-Europe Fit for the Digital Age. She said the “digital transition” is “right at the top” of European priorities for the coming decade, “right alongside climate change.” She called for “clear, well-designed rules that focus on real risks” and warned against unclear or unstable regulation which creates uncertainty for industry.

Congress should consider legislation to fix law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology, House Homeland Security Subcommittee Chair Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, told a separate hearing Tuesday. The systems have potential for misuse and have been found to be inaccurate when identifying people of color and women, she said, calling into question fairness and the due process underpinning criminal prosecution. Law enforcement data on the technology is going underreported or not reported at all, she said, and large scale adoption has the potential to further enforce inequities.

Ranking member Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., agreed with “a lot” of what the chair said. There’s room for bipartisan consensus, he said, warning against overreliance on face scanning technology. AI can wrongly identify women, people of color, elderly and children, said Biggs. He raised concerns about law enforcement unlawfully using the technology for surveillance. Federal law enforcement agencies need “better awareness of systems used by employees,” GAO reported Tuesday. It recommended that “13 agencies track employee use of non-federal systems and assess the risks these systems can pose regarding privacy, accuracy, and more.”