Technological innovations come with certain pitfalls, like all general advancements. It is rare to see a perfect system in its early stages. With the adoption of artificial intelligence in the growing modern world, many unknowns cause consumers to plant doubts. This is what the White House of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) aims to ease.
The OSTP has released the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights (BoR) recently after more than a year in the making. The document is said to serve as a guide in future designs, development, and deployment of artificial intelligence and other automated systems, as mentioned in Engadget.
The blueprint will be implemented for the purpose of protecting the rights of the American public. This could be due to public fears of having personal information leaked through the web or hackers accessing sensitive data via public or private networks.
What Exactly is the Blueprint for AI Bill of Rights For?
According to Bill of Rights co-author Suresh Venkatasubramanian, it is a rights-preserving framework. The BoR states what protections people deserve and the guardrails that are needed.
He also stated that the system should not use data indiscriminately and should be easy to understand. That includes preventing the system from eliminating human interlocutors.
And what are these principles? Simply put, systems should work, they shouldn't discriminate, they shouldn't use data indiscriminately, they should be visible and easy to understand, and they shouldn't eliminate human interlocutors. 7/n
— Suresh Venkatasubramanian (also on sky and mount) (@geomblog) October 4, 2022
The Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights is said to be strong, rich, and detailed after thousands of edits and comments. The Administration has also considered public input by conducting an extensive public outreach through panel discussions and public listening sessions.
A variety of people were also involved in the meeting to better create a framework that suits the public. Attendees include workers, activists, CEOs, and entrepreneurs alike to reach a consensus on how policies should be written and what should be considered.
Why Was it Written in the First Place?
OSTP has acknowledged that automated systems have been very helpful in many ways. They have mentioned examples like efficiency in growing food for farmers, predicting storm paths for computers, and algorithms that help identify a patient's disease. While all these are considered revolutionary, they were more concerned about the harm that automated systems may bring.
According to a blog post on the official website for the White House, there have been instances when the use of technology, data, and automated systems has threatened the rights of the American public.
They claim that there are well-documented problems wherein innovation prevented people from accessing critical resources or services and limits opportunities. The blog post also pointed out that systems for patient care have been proven to be unsafe, biased, or ineffective.
There were also cases where unwanted inequities, bias, and discrimination played a part when it came to hiring and credit decisions. There was also mention of unauthorized collection of social media data which was used to threaten people's opportunities and undermine their privacy.
The Bill of Rights has identified five principles to guide the design, Safe and Effective Systems, Algorithmic Discrimination Protections, Data Privacy, Notice and Explanation, and Human Alternatives, Consideration and Fallback.
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