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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.

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[-] Cris_Color@lemmy.world 119 points 1 year ago

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

[-] pandacoder@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

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).

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[-] KeraKali@lemmy.world 118 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

“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.

[-] paris 52 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] mememuseum@lemmy.world 35 points 1 year ago

The CIA and NSA are exactly who we don't want using it though.

[-] kautau@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

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

[-] pandacoder@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

"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.

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 12 points 1 year ago

They're exactly who will carry on using it, even if there weren't any exemptions.

[-] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

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

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[-] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Folksy narrator: "Turns out, the U.S. government can not operate without racism."

[-] masquenox@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

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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[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 35 points 1 year ago

Hell fucking yea. Who is this Biden guy?

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[-] endlessmeddler@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

Is it already too late for us? Does anyone truly believe that will be enough to protect us?

[-] bioemerl@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.

[-] Assman@sh.itjust.works 42 points 1 year ago

Pretty dumb dawg. The people running against him want christofascism. Not becoming the Christian version of Iran is my single issue.

[-] krellor@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago

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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[-] thejodie@programming.dev 7 points 1 year ago

Sent to my state representative. Thanks!

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this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
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