Senate AI data bill gets House counterpart
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By
Natalie Alms
The Good AI Act would set up a working group to establish best practices to ensure that federal contractors protect and secure data collected with artificial intelligence like facial recognition.
A bipartisan Senate "Good AI" bill, meant to safeguard data collected by federal contractors via artificial intelligence technology, now has a House companion from Reps. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) and Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio).
The bill would require the establishment of a new Artificial Intelligence Hygiene Working Group by the Office of the Management and Budget with the ultimate aim of ensuring that data collected via AI tech like facial recognition isn't misused.
"The rise of artificial intelligence promises many advances in how we collect and interpret data, but this means that Congress has a responsibility to protect and secure the information that is collected," said Lawrence in a statement about the bill.
"In an ever-changing technological environment, it's important that we update our policies to preserve the American people's privacy and identify and eliminate the discriminatory biases sometimes found in AI technology," she continued.
The working group, made up of government experts, would be tasked with coming up with best practices for identifying and mitigating any discriminatory impact or bias, as well as how agencies can ensure that contracts for AI services require systems and data to be secure.
The OMB director would consult with the working group within a year to come up with means to ensure that contracts for AI services "address the protection of privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties" and "address the ownership and security of data,"
The bill is a companion to a Senate counterpart introduced last fall by the leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio). It was reported out of that committee last fall.