Artificial Intelligence and Its Regulatory Landscape: US Readies for a New AI Bill of Rights and Regulations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has significant implications across various workflows and industries, but its potential is far from being realized. While AI offers a plethora of benefits, it also poses significant legal, ethical, and governance challenges. The regulatory and legal frameworks for AI are still evolving, and recent developments in the United States show a shift towards more defined regulations. The US government has introduced various policies, initiatives, and bills to govern the development and deployment of AI systems. These include the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative, the Algorithmic Accountability Act of 2022, and the Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.

In October, 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) unveiled its Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. The blueprint is a non-binding set of guidelines for the design, development, and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. This comes a year after the Whitehouse announced its intent to develop a process to launch a “bill of rights” to guard against ‘powerful technologies created’.

In 2021, the government launched its National Artificial Intelligence Initiative (NAII) following Executive Order 13859 and the establishment of the AI Initiative with the Office of Management and Budget. Legislation and Executive Orders define the US national strategy on AI and Executive Order 13960 establishes principles for the use of AI at a governmental level, with a common policy for implementing the principles, directing agencies to catalog AI use cases, and coordinating AI implementation expertise at the agency level (Ai.gov, 2022) ⁵.

In the past few years, around 60 countries have adopted AI policies in some form ⁸.  Clearly, stricter, more defined regulations are on the horizon and companies adopting or creating AI systems should understand and prepare accordingly.

As organizations increasingly adopt AI-based technologies, they must adopt responsible and transparent AI practices, create standards for evaluating bias, document all processes, and periodically audit and review AI usage to comply with regulators. Responsible AI practices must ensure that AI is human-centered, reinforces fairness, prevents uncontrolled bias, and helps society reach higher goals under the supervision of humans.

Refer here to know more on the regulatory policies on AI in the US.