This piece originally appeared in The Scholarly Kitchen on 4 December.
On October 30, the Biden Administration issued an Executive Order on “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence.” According to the Administration, “[t]he Executive Order establishes new standards for Artificial Intelligence (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.”
I share my thoughts on the Executive Order below:
There has been significant governmental activity around AI, driven especially by the G7 Hiroshima process. In reading the Executive Order (EO), I was most interested in learning the Biden Administration’s approach on three topics: (1) copyright, (2) AI accountability, and (3) AI use in education.
The Executive Order kicked the can on copyright. The US Copyright Office (part of the Legislative Branch) is currently in the middle of a massive AI study process, and the Executive Order directs the head of the US Patent and Trademark Office (US PTO, part of the Executive Branch) to meet with the head of the USCO within six months of the Copyright Office’s issuance of any final report (traffic is bad in DC). At such time, the US PTO is directed to “issue recommendations to the President on potential executive actions relating to copyright and AI.” On the positive side, at least the EO acknowledged that copyright is relevant.
On accountability, as I noted previously in The Scholarly Kitchen, to reach its full potential AI needs to be trained on high quality materials and that information needs to be tracked and disclosed. While the EO could have said more on this topic, I was pleased to note that it includes language such as a mandate to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to create a task force whose remit includes ensuring “development, maintenance, and availability of documentation to help users determine appropriate and safe uses of AI in local settings in the health and human services sector.”
Finally, on education, I was happy to see the following:
To help ensure the responsible development and deployment of AI in the education sector, the Secretary of Education shall, within 365 days of the date of this order, develop resources, policies, and guidance regarding AI. These resources shall address safe, responsible, and nondiscriminatory uses of AI in education, including the impact AI systems have on vulnerable and underserved communities, and shall be developed in consultation with stakeholders as appropriate. They shall also include the development of an “AI toolkit” for education leaders implementing recommendations from the Department of Education’s AI and the Future of Teaching and Learning report, including appropriate human review of AI decisions, designing AI systems to enhance trust and safety and align with privacy-related laws and regulations in the educational context, and developing education-specific guardrails.
Students are not “one size fits all.” Students in my local school district speak 151 home languages other than English. Within each language group, including native English speakers, we have children from some of the wealthiest zip codes in America as well as a student homelessness rate of greater than 10%. In districts such as mine, which is diverse in terms of nearly every measure — including gender, racial, religious, and national origin — personalized and adaptive educational tools are needed. CCC’s work with schools and ed tech providers who license high quality content for AI-based rights is promising and we have experience with how districts especially would benefit from more federal support. Let’s hope it is forthcoming.