US Executive Order on AI

Updated May 6, 2024

 

The Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence was signed by President Biden

on October 30, 2023. It does not impose substantial regulation of AI systems, instead focusing on a wide variety of actions by the US government to promote safe and responsible development of AI. 

 

Policy and Principles

Section 2 of the Executive Order sets out 8 guiding principles and priorities for advancing and governing the development and use of AI:

1. Artificial Intelligence must be safe and secure. 
2. Promoting responsible innovation, competition, and collaboration will allow the United States to lead in AI and unlock the technology’s potential to solve some of society’s most difficult challenges. 
3. The responsible development and use of AI require a commitment to supporting American workers.
4. Artificial Intelligence policies must be consistent with [the Biden] Administration’s dedication to advancing equity and civil rights.
5. The interests of Americans who increasingly use, interact with, or purchase AI and AI-enabled products in their daily lives must be protected. 
6. Americans’ privacy and civil liberties must be protected as AI continues advancing.  
7. It is important to manage the risks from the Federal Government’s own use of AI and increase its internal capacity to regulate, govern, and support responsible use of AI to deliver better results for Americans.
8. The Federal Government should lead the way to global societal, economic, and technological progress, as the United States has in previous eras of disruptive innovation and change.

 

Detailed Provisions

The Stanford University Human-Centered Artifical Intelligence has created a detailed line-by-line tracker of the many provisions of the order. These are set out in the following sections:

• Sec. 4.  Ensuring the Safety and Security of AI Technology
• Sec. 5. Promoting Innovation and Competition
• Sec. 6.  Supporting Workers
• Sec. 7.  Advancing Equity and Civil Rights
• Sec. 8.  Protecting Consumers, Patients, Passengers, and Students
• Sec. 9.  Protecting Privacy
• Sec. 10.  Advancing Federal Government Use of AI
• Sec. 11.  Strengthening American Leadership Abroad

 

Institutions and Implementation

The Executive Order establishes a new White House Artificial Intelligence Council within the Executive Office of the President.

 

Various agencies of US government have begun implementation steps for the Executive Order, including:

• Department of Commerce
  • Bureau of Industry and Security -- notice of proposed rulemaking on malicious cyber-enabled activities, including reporting of training of large AI models by US cloud infrastructure providers for foreign persons that could enable such activities (January 2024)
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology
    • request for letters of interest to join AI Safety Institute Consortium (November 2023)
    • request for comments in responsibilities under Executive Order, mainly on AI guidelines and synthetic content (December 2023)
    • proposed Guidelines for Evaluating Differential Privacy Guarantees (December 2023)
    • proposed Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework: Generative Artificial Intelligence Profile (April 2024)

    • proposed Secure Software Development Practices for Generative AI and Dual-Use Foundation Models (April 2024)

    • proposed Reducing Risks Posed by Synthetic Content: An Overview of Technical Approaches to Digital Content Transparency (April 2024)

    • proposed A Plan for Global Engagement on AI Standards (April 2024)

  • National Telecommmunications and Information Administration
    • announced public engagement on Executive Order (December 2023)
    • Request for Comment on "open-weight" AI models (February 2024)
    • Artificial Intelligence Accountability Policy Report (March 2024) -- detailed report for AI accountability, which includes (a) access to information, (b) independent evaluation and (c) consequences; sets out 8 recommendations are in categories of (1) guidance, (2) support and (3) regulatory requirements

• Department of Health and Human Services -- rule on health information technology, including some standards on safe and responsible AI in healthcare (January 2024)

• Department of Transportation -- Opportunities and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Transportation; Request for Information (May 2024)

• Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget -- Advancing Governance, Innovation, and Risk Management for Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence (Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies) (March 2024) -- includes requirements on agencies to appoint Chief AI Officers and AI Governance Boards and to apply minimum standards to "safety-impacting" and "rights-impacting" AI

• Office of Personnel Management -- authorized government-wide hiring authority for AI workforce (December 2023); Department of Labor and Department of State have taken specific employment/visa actions on AI.