President Biden issued an executive order Monday aimed at establishing new safeguards governing the use of AI while also promoting U.S. interests in the artificial-intelligence field.
The executive order — the first such U.S. regulations explicitly aimed at artificial intelligence — “establishes new standards for AI safety and security, protects Americans’ privacy, advances equity and civil rights, stands up for consumers and workers, promotes innovation and competition, advances American leadership around the world, and more,” the White House said in a statement.
Among other things, Biden’s AI executive order directs federal agencies to “develop principles and best practices to mitigate the harms and maximize the benefits of AI for workers by addressing job displacement; labor standards; workplace equity, health, and safety; and data collection.” In addition, it calls for a report on “AI’s potential labor-market impacts, and study and identify options for strengthening federal support for workers facing labor disruptions, including from AI.”
In Hollywood, the use of generative AI — which can produce synthetic text, images and video based on large data sets — has stoked fear among writers and actors that the technology could hurt their livelihoods. AI has been a bone of contention in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, as the unions have sought protections in contracts with studios.
In its deal reached Sept. 24 with studios, the WGA secured provisions including a specification that “AI-generated material can’t be used to undermine a writer’s credit or separated rights” in studio productions. Writers may choose to use AI, but studios “can’t require the writer to use AI software (e.g., ChatGPT) when performing writing services,” per the agreement. SAG-AFTRA, which remains on strike amid ongoing talks, wants guarantees from AMPTP that performers, including background actors, will have full consent and compensation rights over any use of a “digital replica” made of such performers.
Biden’s executive order on AI is available at this link, and the White House’s fact sheet about it is at this link. It covers eight main sections:
- Creating new safety and security standards for AI, including by requiring some AI companies to share safety test results with the federal government, directing the Commerce Department to create guidance for AI watermarking and the labeling of AI-generated content, and creating a cybersecurity program that can make AI tools that help identify flaws in critical software.
- Protecting consumer privacy, including by creating guidelines that agencies can use to evaluate privacy techniques used in AI.
- Advancing equity and civil rights by providing guidance to landlords and federal contractors to help avoid AI algorithms furthering discrimination and creating best practices on the appropriate role of AI in the justice system, including when it’s used in sentencing, risk assessments and crime forecasting.
- Protecting consumers overall by directing the Department of Health and Human Services to create a program to evaluate potentially harmful AI-related healthcare practices and creating resources on how educators can responsibly use AI tools.
- Supporting workers by producing a report on the potential labor market implications of AI and studying the ways the federal government could support workers impacted by a disruption to the labor market.
- Promoting innovation and competition by expanding grants for AI research in areas like climate change and modernizing the criteria for highly skilled immigrant workers with key expertise to stay in the U.S.
- Working with international partners to implement AI standards around the world and developing guidance for federal agencies’ use and procurement of AI and to speed up the government’s hiring of workers skilled in the field.
