The Technology 202: White House unveils AI 'bill of rights’ as ‘call to action’ to rein in tool

The nonbinding guidelines call on companies to curb uses that lead to harm. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

View in browser   By Cristiano Lima with research by Aaron Schaffer Welcome to The Technology 202 and happy belated Oct. 3! As always, send tips to: cristiano.lima@washpost.com. Below: The Supreme Court says it will hear social media cases, and the Biden administration prepares new rules on chips going to China. First: White House unveils AI 'bill of rights' as 'call to action' to rein in tool Alondra Nelson speaks during an event on Jan. 16, 2021, in Wilmington, Del. (Matt Slocum/AP) The White House on Tuesday released its long-awaited "bill of rights" on artificial intelligence, laying out the Biden administration's vision for how companies and government agencies can safeguard people from misuse or abuse at the hands of the technology.  The document offers a set of voluntary guidelines that the administration says companies developing or deploying AI can follow to better protect users. But it stops short of setting any new restrictions or protections around use of the technology.   The "bill of rights" features five overarching principles: Users should be "protected from unsafe or ineffective" automated systems, and tools should be expressly "designed to proactively protect you from harms." Discriminatory uses of algorithms and other AI should be prohibited and tools should be developed with an emphasis on equity. Companies should build privacy protections into products to prevent "abusive data practices" and users should have "agency" over how their data is used. Systems should be transparent so that users "know that an automated system is being used" and understand how it's affecting them. Users should be able to "opt out of automated systems in favor of a human alternative, where appropriate." "This document is laying down a marker for the protections that everyone in America should be entitled to," Alondra Nelson, deputy director for science and society of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), told me in an interview.  One senior administration official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the plan is partly a "call to action." "We recognize that there is still a lot of work to do, but in terms of the vision, what we want to see is … these practices implemented," the official said.  The 73-page document also includes a "technical companion," detailing how the guidelines can be implemented in different scenarios, including as products are being developed.  As nonbinding principles, the "bill of rights" itself is opt-in — companies can ignore it unless agencies or Congress follow through in enforcing or expanding protections. That could blunt its impact. But as part of its rollout, the Biden administration announced new steps it said various federal agencies would take to put the principles into practice. Among them: The Department of Education plans to issue recommendations on AI use in teaching and learning by early 2023; the Department of Health and Human Services will release "a vision for advancing Health Equity by Design" by the end of 2022; and the Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to issue guidance on how tenant screening algorithms can violate federal housing laws, the White House said.  Nelson said the Department of Labor would also be "really leaning into their ability to compel reporting" from companies about workplace surveillance using AI. "This is a particularly important example of how our concerns and hopes for automated technologies really meet some of the other highest priorities of this administration, like workers' rights," said Nelson, who served as acting OSTP director until Arati Prabhakar was sworn in as permanent director this week.  The "bill of rights" also reflects another Biden administration focus: boosting equity. It calls on companies to use "representative" data sets so that AI reflects users equitably and to conduct "ongoing disparity testing and mitigation" before and after tools are rolled out.  "This effort is really the White House saying that civil rights need to be at the center of how we make and use and govern technologies," Nelson said. Senior administration officials cast the "bill of rights" as President Biden's latest effort to scrutinize the tech giants. "The 'blueprint for an AI bill of rights' is part of President Biden's broader commitment to tech accountability. … For years, the president has said it's time to hold Big Tech accountable for the harms those companies cause," one official said.  But the plan also touches on federal agencies' use of AI, which lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have grown increasingly critical of, with some even calling for a moratorium on the use of tools like facial recognition.  Nelson said the plan was intended as a "beacon" for the "whole of government."   Our top tabs The Supreme Court says it will hear two social media cases A Supreme Court decision in the case could have long-lasting implications for the future of the internet. (Elizabeth Frantz for The Washington Post) One of the cases tests the limits of Section 230, which gives social media companies protection from liability for what third parties post, Rachel Lerman reports. The family of Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old American student killed in a 2015 ISIS terrorist attack in Paris, filed the lawsuit, arguing that YouTube "aided and abetted" ISIS partly by allowing its algorithms to recommend ISIS content. Google has argued that "the complaint does not allege that any terrorists saw such a recommendation or that such recommendations had any connection to the Paris attack." The company also argued that the case wasn't the appropriate way to consider Section 230. The Supreme Court also said it would consider a separate case filed by relatives of Nawras Alassaf, who was killed in a 2017 terrorist attack in Istanbul. They argued that Twitter, Facebook and Google violated the Anti-Terrorism Act by letting ISIS use their sites, Rachel reports. The court declined to hear a case by right-wing commentator Candace Owens, who took issue with Facebook's fact-checking system and fact-checkers labeling her posts about covid-19 as "false." FCC threatens to blacklist firms over robocalls FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the threats came in a "new era" and that "fines alone aren't enough." (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) The Federal Communications Commission said the seven voice-over IP providers could be removed from its database of trusted carriers, which would bar compliant firms from carrying their traffic, effectively cutting them off from U.S. networks, CyberScoop's Tonya Riley reports. The orders were the "first-of-their-kind," the FCC said in a statement. "This is a new era. If a provider doesn't meet its obligations under the law, it now faces expulsion from America's phone networks. Fines alone aren't enough," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. "Providers that don't follow our rules and make it easy to scam consumers will now face swift consequences." The companies have two weeks to tell the FCC why they shouldn't be blacklisted. The threat came after the FCC said it would seek comment on requiring cellphone firms to block texts from known spam senders, which was first reported by Axios. Biden administration prepares to impose new rules to try to curb Chinese advanced computing  The rules are designed to slow Chinese development of key military technology. (Patrick Semansky/AP) The rules would block firms around the world from selling some advanced chips to Chinese buyers without a license if they use U.S. technology to make the chips, Ellen Nakashima and Jeanne Whalen report. The rules, which could be announced as soon as this week, would apply to semiconductors for use in supercomputers and some artificial intelligence applications. "Additionally the administration is restricting the export to China of chip-making tools needed to make advanced semiconductors with transistors that are 14 nanometers or smaller," Ellen and Jeanne write. "And it is planning to place more Chinese organizations on an export blacklist called the Entity List," they write. The rules are designed to constrain Chinese development of technologies that are important for the advancement of its military. A White House spokeswoman declined to comment.   Rant and rave Twitter was awash with takes on Section 230 after the Supreme Court said it would hear a case on the issue. R Street Institute digital director and fellow Shoshana Weissmann: Assistant professor Evelyn Douek: Associate professor of cybersecurity law Jeff Kosseff, who wrote a book on Section 230:   Inside the industry Google discontinues Google Translate in mainland China By Associated Press ●  Read more »   Britain to replace GDPR data privacy regime with own system By Reuters ●  Read more »   Apple loses second bid to challenge Qualcomm patents at U.S. Supreme Court By Reuters ●  Read more »     Agency scanner U.S.-U.K. data sharing program goes into effect By NextGov ●  Read more »     Trending Kim Kardashian to pay $1.26 million in SEC crypto case By Tory Newmyer and Steven Zeitchik ●  Read more »     Daybook The American Enterprise Institute holds an event on cryptocurrency regulation today at 10 a.m. The Carnegie Endowment hosts an event on Chinese technology in the Middle East and southeast Asia on Thursday at 9 a.m.   Before you log off That's all for today — thank you so much for joining us! 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