The GOOD AI Act is Introduced in the US Senate

The Government Ownership and Oversight of Data in Artificial Intelligence Act (GOOD AI Act) was recently introduced in the US Senate.  It is sponsored by Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat and Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican.  Both introducing senators are on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The Bill encourages the Office of Management and Budget to work with AI experts to make sure that data collected by all federal contractors by means of artificial intelligence is not commercialized, misused, or shared with third parties.  One of the direct motivations for the bill stems from an incident in which a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) contractor suffered a breach in which the facial images of tens of thousands of people were exposed.  The conduct by the contractor leading up to the breach may have been inappropriate, such as using facial images to train biometric algorithms without appropriate authorization.

The use of AI is continuing to increase worldwide and regulation is becoming increasingly important.  AI allows for significant efficiency and cost-savings benefits for those who deploy it, but it also can cause harm, such as in the case of the CBP contractor that leaked tens of thousands of facial images.  AI can be used to capture biometric data of persons, which is generally considered to be sensitive personal information about which individuals have privacy rights.

The phrase “with great power comes great responsibility” is apt for AI.  AI allows for the dramatic simplification and expeditiousness of many processes.  It grants its wielder great power.  However, the great power that it provides can be used for good or for ill.

Regulators recognize that it would be imprudent to rely on the wielders of AI to properly regulate themselves.  The GOOD AI bill functions to rein in some of the great power that AI provides contractors and through proper oversight, make sure that it used for good rather than ill.

At Clarip, we like to think that we use AI for good.  Our hybrid AI approach helps locate personal information on websites and applications.  Our hybrid AI is used for data mapping, data risk intelligence scans, and data subject access request fulfillment.  We also provide vendor and consent management and other privacy compliance functionality.  Visit our website at www.clarip.com or call us at 1-888-252-5653 to learn more or schedule a demo of what our hybrid AI can do.