Biden executive order on artificial intelligence will be a problem: CEI analysis

President Biden is reportedly poised to sign an executive order aimed at monitoring artificial intelligence technology and moving toward new regulations for AI. CEI experts expressed deep skepticism that the administration will wield regulation in a thoughtful, beneficial, knowledgeable way. 

Statement by Jessica Melugin, Director of CEI’s Center on Technology and Innovation:

“It’s hard to imagine a group less qualified to steer AI than the ocean of unelected government bureaucrats this EO empowers. There is no specialized knowledge about AI consequences residing at the Federal Trade Commission or any other federal agency. Besides, ‘voluntary’ agreements aren’t voluntary when the carrot of huge federal dollars distort decisions developers would otherwise make in a private marketplace full of risk, the rule of law, and decentralized price signals. This will favor the entrenched players and create a morass of private-public interests that will be impossible to sort.”

Statement by Wayne Crews, Fred L. Smith, Jr. Fellow in Regulatory Policy:

“This executive order risks lobotomizing AI. Biden’s escalating of federal regulatory power over such a promising technology will prevent necessary market-driven corrections and allow the government to leverage its buying power to shape the progress of AI. Indemnifying the risks of AI with subsidies and purchase power blocks the preferable course AI would take, benefiting from legal consequences and market signals.” (See related analysis on Forbes.com)