White House Announces New Actions to Promote Responsible AI Innovation that Protects People’s Rights and Safety

On May 4, 2023, the White House announced three new actions to further promote responsible innovation in artificial intelligence (“AI”) while protecting people’s rights and safety. These actions include: (1) making investments in AI research and development institutes; (2) conducting public assessments of existing AI system models; and (3) creation of policies for the use of AI by the U.S. government.

New investments to power responsible AI research and development. The U.S. government, through the National Science Foundation, will invest $140 million in funding for seven new National AI Research Institutes, bringing the total number of such Institutes to 25. These Institutes promote responsible innovation, strengthen the U.S. research and development infrastructure, and support the development of a diverse AI workforce.

Public assessments of existing generative AI systems. Leading AI developers, including Anthropic, Google, Hugging Face, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Stability AI, have agreed to have their AI models publicly evaluated at DEF CON 31, a hacker convention taking place in August 2023. This assessment will include an evaluation of how the models align with the principles and practices outlined in the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, released by the White House in October 2022, and the AI Risk Management Framework, released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) of the U.S. Department of Commerce in January 2023. The assessment is intended to provide information to researchers and the public about the impact of the AI models, and to assist AI developers to fix any identified issues.

Policies to ensure the U.S. government is leading by example on mitigating AI risks and harnessing AI opportunities. The Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) will release for public comment in the summer of 2023 draft policy guidance on the use of AI systems by the U.S. government. The OMB guidance will:

• Establish policies for federal agencies to follow in their development, procurement, and use of AI systems to ensure focus on safeguarding people’s rights and safety.
• Empower agencies to leverage AI to both advance their missions and equitably serve the American people.
• Serve as a model for state and local governments, businesses, and others to follow in their procurement and use of AI.