Biden Administration Issues Broad Executive Order to Regulate and Advance Artificial Intelligence

The Order requires multiple government agencies to develop further guidance, plans, and regulation concerning AI within the next 30 to 365 days. Other key actions implicated by the Order include:

• Creating a new interagency AI Policy Committee to coordinate and review federal AI policies and initiatives.
• Developing and implementing a national AI research and development strategy and roadmap.
• Enhancing the AI workforce and talent pipeline in the United States, including through immigration reforms and training programs. 
• Establishing reporting and auditing requirements for large AI models and cloud service providers that could pose significant risks to national security, cybersecurity, or public safety.
• Developing and deploying AI capabilities to detect and remediate vulnerabilities in critical software, systems, and networks. 
• Evaluating and mitigating the potential for AI to be misused to enable the development or use of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats, especially biological weapons. 
• Developing standards, tools, and best practices for authenticating, labeling, and detecting synthetic content, such as deepfakes, and preventing the generation of child sexual abuse material or non-consensual intimate imagery. 
• Strengthening the protection of privacy and civil rights in the use of AI by federal agencies and regulated entities, including through updating guidance and regulations. 
• Engaging with allies and partners to promote and develop AI standards and norms that reflect democratic values and human rights worldwide.

While in some places the Order speaks in broad terms and delegates judgment to agency heads, elsewhere it dives into the details. It strongly implies, for example, that the Administration will closely regulate AI that attempts to forecast where crimes might occur based on historical crime data.