Model Legislation On Artificial Intelligence To Regulate Government, Not Big Tech

While there’s considerable chatter, Congress seems unlikely to enact legislation regulating artificial intelligence (AI) this election year. The wait can be worth it, though.

There have been numerous congressional hearings since Joe Biden’s October 2023 executive order on “Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” and its more than 150 requirements.

Expect more deliberations in the wake of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) brand-new March 28, 2024, 34-page guidance memorandum dubbed “Advancing Governance, Innovation, and Risk Management for Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence.”

Biden’s executive order was hardly the first foray. Donald Trump issued directives on AI education and investment and on federal acquisition and use. Barack Obama offered an AI “Strategic Plan.” Earlier Biden White House guidance had already required appointing a “Chief AI Officer” at most federal agencies.

A December 2023 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report Artificial Intelligence: Agencies Have Begun Implementation but Need to Complete Key Requirements found 20 agencies reporting some 1,200 “current and planned” AI “use cases,” or “specific challenges or opportunities that AI may solve.” Noted examples included “analyzing data from cameras and radar to identify border activities, analyzing photographs from drones, and targeting of scientific specimens for planetary rovers.” The GAO further found that NASA and the Department of Commerce are the lead AI users, that all but about 200 federal AI uses are at the “planning phase and not yet in production” and that considerable incompleteness and inaccuracies in reporting abound.

Read the full article on Forbes.