President Biden signed an executive order last Monday purportedly attempting to strike a balance between innovation and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI). In actuality, the order further enables the left’s mad dash toward ideologically capturing the most important technological advancement of the 21st century while also calling for the implementation of regulations that “mitigat[e]” the “substantial risks” AI presents.
Using the Defense Production Act, the order increases federal oversight and regulatory scrutiny of the industry by creating new reporting requirements and interagency coordination in handling AI. It also calls for the development of new technical standards and tools for the evaluation of AI systems.
The order further calls for AI companies to report on training, security, and testing of dual-use AI models and large computing clusters, a review of regulations for AI safety in drug development, and the Federal Trade Commission to consider rulemaking to ensure fair competition in AI markets. And it encourages the Federal Communications Commission to issue rules on the use of AI in communications networks.
It also requires that AI developers provide safety test results and other critical information — such as “the physical and cybersecurity protections taken to assure the integrity of that training process against sophisticated threats” and various program test results — to the federal government.
It is expected that these new regulations will hamper technological progress. That said, it may be advisable for American developers to take a slower, more measured approach to AI.
“Stifling ‘innovation’ shouldn’t be the main concern,” Policy Director of American Principles Project Jon Schweppe told The Federalist. “We should want tech companies to be very cautious in how they approach AI development. But is empowering government bureaucrats — who have their own political agenda — really the best approach? Especially when censorship of ‘bad ideas’ is viewed by so many progressives as the highest good?”
Schweppe continued by stating that elected officials, not unaccountable bureaucrats, should ensure AI is safe for public use. He said, “The answer to runaway AI is Congress imposing significant liability that holds AI creators responsible for their creations. We don’t want or need a Bureau of Artificial Intelligence.”
Biden’s order further directs the Commerce Department to identify “science-backed standards and techniques” for detecting “synthetic content” — media either wholly created or manipulated by generative AI models. It calls for “preventing generative AI from producing child sexual abuse material or producing non-consensual intimate imagery of real individuals,” the latter more commonly referred to as “deepfakes.”
[READ: Deepfake Pornography Reveals Yet Another Risk Posed By Artificial Intelligence]
Most notable, however, is the administration’s explicit call for the integration of AI with corrosive leftist ideologies that have taken over every major institution and pit Americans against one another. In the section titled “Advancing Equity and Civil Rights,” the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is directed to “prevent and address discrimination in the use of automated systems, including algorithmic discrimination” and “improve external stakeholder engagement to promote public awareness of potential discriminatory uses and effects of AI,” among other things.
What this means, of course, is the federal government will strong-arm AI companies into making toxic, anti-American concepts such as critical race theory foundational components of their models. At the outset of the order, Biden states, “AI reflects the principles of the people who build it, the people who use it, and the data upon which it is built.” His administration is keenly aware that AI models are reliant upon the external worldviews of their programmers. Considering that our civilization is expected to become fully integrated and reliant upon artificial intelligence, it is no surprise the left seeks to further American institutional dependence on its perverse preferences.
The executive order further calls for the “incorporation of equity principles in AI-enabled technologies used in the health and human services sector.”
The government outwardly stating its desire for AI to do the left’s bidding might shock you, but it’s been working to achieve this goal for years. The federal government has allocated millions of dollars to nonprofit organizations for the purpose of integrating AI technology with critical theory. For instance, the National Science Foundation’s Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings awarded $2,249,999 to Oakland, California-based nonprofit YR Media for the purpose of teaching “underrepresented” and “underserved” kids how to navigate the “theoretical framework” of artificial intelligence with a curriculum predicated on “Computational Thinking plus Critical Pedagogy.”
Federal grants have also been awarded to public universities for developing AI programs that monitor social media communications via geolocation data and track Americans’ mental states.
Having a robust AI industry is crucial to maintaining American hegemony in the 21st century; therefore, funding its development ought to be a priority. But it is clear the Biden administration and permanent Washington are more interested in using the technology to perpetuate their ideological control of the nation than in unleashing American prosperity.
Samuel Mangold-Lenett is a staff editor at The Federalist. His writing has been featured in the Daily Wire, Townhall, The American Spectator, and other outlets. He is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. Follow him on Twitter @smlenett.
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