As Congress and the Administration continue to advance federal initiatives related to artificial intelligence (AI), private stakeholders also continue to make their voices heard. On September 23, 2019, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Engagement Center (C_TEC) and Center for Global Regulatory Cooperation (GRC) released 10 policy principles governing the use and regulation of AI. More than 50 of the Chamber’s diverse member companies contributed to the drafting effort. The U.S. Chamber’s AI Principles (“Principles”) serve as a guiding framework to address policy issues regarding AI for all levels of government.

The Principles include:

  • Recognize Trustworthy AI is a Partnership. Governments should collaborate with the private sector, academia, and civil society to ensure AI technologies encompass trustworthy values such as transparency, explainability, fairness and accountability.
  • Be Mindful of Existing Rules and Regulations. Policymakers should consider removing or modifying regulations that hinder AI’s development, deployment and use. Also, governments should implement comprehensive and interoperable practices and avoid creating a patchwork of AI policies.
  • Adopt Risk-Based Approaches to AI Governance. Governments should incorporate flexible risk-based approaches based on use cases rather than prescriptive requirements when governing the use of AI technologies.
  • Support Private and Public Investment in AI Research and Development. Governments should encourage and incentivize robust investments in research and development by collaborating directly with cross-border businesses, universities and institutions.
  • Build an AI-Ready Workforce. Governments should collaborate with industry stakeholders to build and retain a diverse global workforce suited for an AI economy to ensure that workers are prepared to use AI tools and adapt to changing workforce needs.
  • Promote Open and Accessible Government Data. Governments at all levels should improve the quality and usability of its robust data sets through, as an example, greater digitization, standardized documentation and formatting and additional budgetary resources.
  • Pursue Robust and Flexible Privacy Regimes. Governments should pursue robust but flexible data protection regimes that enable the collection, retention and processing of data for AI development, deployment and use while preserving consumer privacy rights.
  • Advance Intellectual Property Frameworks that Protect and Promote Innovation. Governments must work to protect and enforce intellectual property for AI and support an innovation-oriented approach that recognizes the strengths of an open AI ecosystem.
  • Commit to Cross-Border Data Flows. Governments should commit to international border data-flow to boost AI-related investment and innovation to increase access to AI technologies.
  • Abide by International Standards. Policymakers should acknowledge and support the development of industry-led and consensus-based standards in recognized international standards bodies and consortia to facilitate the use and adoption of AI technologies.

As noted above, the Principles are just the latest sign that AI policy concerns stretch across industries. The Akin Gump cross-practice AI team continues to actively monitor forthcoming administrative, congressional and private stakeholder initiatives related to AI.

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