Biden admin's new AI executive order prioritizes DEI
"My Administration cannot — and will not — tolerate the use of AI to disadvantage those who are already too often denied equal opportunity and justice," the Order states.
The Biden administration will impose a sweeping new package of regulations on artificial intelligence.
Biden signed the as-yet-unnumbered Executive Order includes guidelines for multiple cabinet departments on a vast range of topics ranging from national security to foreign relations to immigration to hiring to criminal justice. The order also includes extensive provisions imposing the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
”Responsible AI use has the potential to help solve urgent challenges while making our world more prosperous, productive, innovative, and secure,” the preface to the order reads. “At the same time, irresponsible use could exacerbate societal harms such as fraud, discrimination, bias, and disinformation; displace and disempower workers; stifle competition; and pose risks to national security.”
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”My Administration places the highest urgency on governing the development and use of AI safely and responsibly, and is therefore advancing a coordinated, Federal Government-wide approach to doing so,” it adds.
Despite the Biden Administration’s concerns about “discrimination, bias, and disinformation” AI is often biased against conservatives, as Campus Reform has previously reported.
For instance, a study conducted earlier this year by Jochen Hartmann at the University of Munich and Jasper Schwenzow and Maximilian Witte at the University of Hamburg found that when prompted using hundreds of political statements, ChatGPT “would impose taxes on flights, restrict rent increases, and legalize abortion.” The AI bot also would “most likely” have voted for the left-wing Green party in Germany and the Netherlands.
The European researchers are not alone. Tests performed by The Brookings Institution found in May that, although the bot would sometimes give inconsistent answers, generally, “there is a clear left-leaning political bias to many of the ChatGPT responses.”
One of the key pieces of the Executive Order is imposing the Administration’s commitment to DEI. “My Administration cannot — and will not — tolerate the use of AI to disadvantage those who are already too often denied equal opportunity and justice,” the order states. “From hiring to housing to healthcare, we have seen what happens when AI use deepens discrimination and bias, rather than improving quality of life. Artificial Intelligence systems deployed irresponsibly have reproduced and intensified existing inequities, caused new types of harmful discrimination, and exacerbated online and physical harms.”
The order also includes a whole section dedicated to “Advancing Equity and Civil Rights.” It instructs the Attorney General to “address unlawful discrimination and other harms that may be exacerbated by AI” by coordinating the implementation and enforcement of existing laws that apply to AI.
It further directs the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights to convene a meeting of the heads of Federal civil rights offices for the purpose of discussing using their respective authorities to prevent “algorithmic discrimination” in automated systems.
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It also instructs the Department of Justice to submit a report addressing AI usage in the criminal justice system, from sentencing to parole and probation, to bail and pre-trial detention and release, to risk assesments, police surveillance, crime forecasting and predictive policing, prison management, and forensic analysis. The report must also identify areas where AI can increase law enforcement efficiency and accuracy, recommend limits for AI use, and submit recommendations to the President for legislation.
Finally, the order directs federal agencies “use their respective civil rights and civil liberties offices and authorities — as appropriate and consistent with applicable law — to prevent and address unlawful discrimination and other harms that result from uses of AI in Federal Government programs and benefits administration.
AI is already being used to administer benefits on college campuses. Campus Reform previously reported that colleges are starting to use AI to determine financial aid packages for prospective students, partnering with firms like EAB to help their admissions teams through the use of “enrollment algorithms,” which “predict the likelihood that a student will enroll in an institution after being offered admission.”
This article contains additional reporting by Brendan McDonald and Kayley Chartier.
