Highlights: The White House issued draft rules today that would require federal agencies to evaluate and constantly monitor algorithms used in health care, law enforcement, and housing for potential discrimination or other harmful effects on human rights.
Once in effect, the rules could force changes in US government activity dependent on AI, such as the FBI’s use of face recognition technology, which has been criticized for not taking steps called for by Congress to protect civil liberties. The new rules would require government agencies to assess existing algorithms by August 2024 and stop using any that don’t comply.
I mean that broadly seems like a good thing. Execution is important, but on paper this seems like the kind of forward thinking policy we need
Quite frankly it didn’t put enough restrictions on the various “national security” agencies, and so while it may help to stem the tide of irresponsible usage by many of the lesser-impact agencies, it doesn’t do the same for the agencies that we know will be the worst offenders (and have been the worst offenders).
I really don’t understand the downvotes on this comment…
NSA bots downvoting.
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“If the benefits do not meaningfully outweigh the risks, agencies should not use the AI,” the memo says. But the draft memo carves out an exemption for models that deal with national security and allows agencies to effectively issue themselves waivers if ending use of an AI model “would create an unacceptable impediment to critical agency operations.”
This tells me that nothing is going to change if people can just say their algoriths would make them too inefficient. Great sentiment but this loophole will make it useless.
This seems to me like an exception that would realistically only apply to the CIA, NSA, and sometimes the FBI. I doubt the Department of Housing and Urban Development will get a pass. Overall seems like a good change in a good direction.
The CIA and NSA are exactly who we don’t want using it though.
Agreed but it’s at least a step forward, setting a precedent for AI in government use. I would love a perfect world where all bills passed are “all or nothing” legislation but realistically this is a good start, and then citizens should demand tighter oversight on national security agencies as the next issue to tackle
“next issue to tackle”
It’s been the next issue to tackle since at least October 26th, 2001. They have no accountability. Adding these carve outs is just making it harder to get accountability.
They’re exactly who will carry on using it, even if there weren’t any exemptions.
Like either of those agencies will let us know what they are doing in the first place.
At a certain level, there are no rules when they never have to tell what they are doing.
given the “success” of Israel’s hi tech border fence it seems like bureacracies think tech will work better than actually, you know, resolving/preventing geopolitical problems with diplomacy and intelligence.
I worry these kind of tech solutions become a predictable crutch. Assuming there is some kind of real necessity to these spy programs (debatable) it seems like reliance on data tech can become a weakness as soon as those intending harm understand how it works
Well that and customs/border patrol
I’d rather them not either, but don’t underestimate the harm bad management of other organizations can and has done.
I’m actually less worried about them.
Local police departments on the other hand, can arrest and get you sent to jail based on flimsy facial recognition, and it doesn’t even make the local news.
Algorithms that gerrymander voting district boundries might be an early battleground.
The early battleground of 2010 when they started using RedMap.
“Realistically” baahahaba. Right.
Folksy narrator: “Turns out, the U.S. government can not operate without racism.”
Great sentiment but
It’s not a “great sentiment” - it’s essentially just more of the same liberal “let’s pretend we care by doing something completely ineffective” posturing and little else.
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Hell fucking yea. Who is this Biden guy?
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Extremes hate everything, so it doesn’t really matter what they think.
Nah, if this sticks, my extreme leftist ass will sing his praises.
He did something: add national security loopholes
The worst possible offenders aren’t really being reined in by this executive order.
As an extreme leftist, this rings hollow.
A lot of my leftist friends will still let the bad be the enemy of any sort of good whatsoever it seems. It’s exhausting as a leftist when you can never be outraged enough for other leftists.
This i can sympathize with. I do not reach the violently inappropriate level of outrage cultivated and appreciated in this country.
Dark Brandon is Awake.
I wish he was around more often than Sleepy Joe. 😔
Sleepy Joe is just a manufactured slur by a demented idiot supported only by second-long video clips of Biden between going to meetings and making changes.
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They know, the DNC wanted single payer initially and compromised and they’ve been the party with a single payer platform ever since.
If the DNC at any point had the house and 2/3rds of the Senate then we would have Single Payer Health Care right now. We don’t because they can’t.
As long as he doesn’t start getting in the way of open source algorithms were fine.
Delay llama 3 and I’m voting for whoever runs against Biden. No exceptions, I will become a single issue voter and this will be my issue.
Pretty dumb dawg. The people running against him want christofascism. Not becoming the Christian version of Iran is my single issue.
Kbin, what do you expect.
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Haters gonna hate I guess 😇
Nope, this is the most important issue for me. It overrides all other concerns.
Why is it the most important issue for you?
The thing that has the most direct and pressing impact on my life right now. A ban on open source AI would be like a ban on watching television.
I must guess you cannot get pregnant, aren’t a minority, as well as are wealthy. Otherwise I cannot see how this can ever be true.
That second one doesn’t matter when it comes to abortion because guys also have wives and girlfriends who can get pregnant and it’s pretty important they can abort when they do. Acting like abortion isn’t something that impacts men as well is nothing just isn’t the truth.
And I’m not really wealthy, but I live a pretty slimmed down lifestyle with very few expenses such the money is not a direct concern.
When there are no pressing issues for me to vote for those things become stuff I would vote along the lines of, and I side with a Democrats on all of them.
But I’m not some idiot who’s going to vote for the sake of other people, I vote for issues that matter to me and nothing else.
Don’t fuck with AI (and continue funding Ukraine) and I’ll be on their side. Simple as that.
That’s quite a long winded way of saying, “fuck you, I got mine.”
Why not vote for the sake of other people when their lives, health, and safety are on the line?
I sure hope you are a strawman account because you are an idiot if this is who you are.
The idiot is the person who votes based on other people’s priorities.
If you want to believe garbage about some impending Christian fascist state you’re more than welcome to, but reality is quite a bit more mundane.
If we end up in a fucking concentration camp together I am shiving you. You stupid motherfucker.
You can shiv me in your doomerist fantasies.
Aint doomer, just a very big follower of hope for the best prepare for the worst. Has kept my kin and ancestor alive in the past will do the same in the future. But then again I aint the retard who’s more worried about useless tech junk that’ll probably have minimum effect on society as whole.
I probably wont convince ya of jack and or shit, but what I can do is point out that not looking out for other folks usually ends badly for people. A shunned man is a deadman.
I don’t think you have anything to worry about. All this requires is that any models used by the government are tested for bias. Which is a good thing.
Go ask an early generation ai image generator to make pictures of people cleaning and it will give you a bunch of pictures of women. There are all sorts of examples of racial, sex, and religious biases in the models because of the data they were trained on.
Requiring the executive agencies to test for bias is a good thing.
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The same way they do it with crypto bullshit I’d imagine. Prosecute people for export.Edit: my bad. Daddy government can only do good. That’s why we support Israel.
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I’m glad it got shut down, but it doesn’t mean it didn’t have a chilling effect for years.
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It was an issue the government created to inhibit crypto. Consider 3D printed gun models, because they did the same kind of thing there and it’s in effect still.
I fucking can’t with you people.
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If you’ve got a better reason you look like you use boot polish for lipstick I’m all ears.
The government using export restrictions (and any other law they can try to make apply) to enrich corporations isn’t fucking new.
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Pretty darn easily given that the United States controls Nvidia
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Is there something confusing in that sentence? The US has already banned the export of cards above a certain speed to China. It would be simple to extend that control.
This will entrench big tech in federal government, but I’m not too worried about limits on the government.
Yeah, the only concern I have so far is the leverage of the defense powers act to require foundational model development to sent red team results to the Fed. That’s a hint that will enable them to ban release of models in the future.
Is it already too late for us? Does anyone truly believe that will be enough to protect us?
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This isn’t a comic book. Its good policy.
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Sent to my state representative. Thanks!
Interesting. I want algorithms to warn us about potential harms by Joe Biden. What if we were able to fund an AI run by the GAO that can tell us when government decisions make the majority of our lives worse?
It’s a long way off and might be a bad idea to trust an AI outright, but I just wish we had a more data informed government.
You might be interested in data.gov. The Obama admin kicked of the Government Open Data Initiative to provide transparency in government. Agencies have been given a means to publish their data, which US taxes pay for. You’d be surprised what’s in there. It’s not an algorithm, but you could certainly build one from that if you wanted to.
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