Source: United States Department of Justice
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division convened a meeting yesterday with the heads of civil rights offices and senior officials from multiple federal agencies to discuss the critical intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and civil rights as directed by President Biden’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.
In her opening remarks, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke detailed the division’s comprehensive approach to address the potential impact of AI on civil rights through enforcement, education and outreach, interagency coordination and policy. She highlighted the division’s joint statement with federal partners explaining AI’s potential impact on civil rights, fair competition, consumer protection and equal opportunity and our collective commitment to combating unlawful use of AI systems. She also noted the division’s guidance explaining how algorithms and AI can lead to disability discrimination in hiring and the important work of the division’s internal AI Civil Rights Working Group.
During the meeting, attendees discussed their efforts to safeguard civil rights through robust enforcement, policy initiatives and ongoing education and outreach. Agency representatives explored ways to leverage shared resources to address discrimination or other adverse situations that may arise through the use of AI and other advanced technologies. Participants also provided updates on their respective obligations under the executive order, which include developing and issuing policies, guidance and other resource documents on the application of existing federal civil rights and consumer protection laws to the use of AI in areas such as education, employment, healthcare, housing and credit. All participants highlighted the importance of educating the public about how AI and similar systems can violate federal protections and the need to develop holistic remedies to address those harms.
Attendees at the interagency convening included Chair Charlotte Burrows of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Director Rohit Chopra of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Director of Civil Rights Melanie Fontes Rainer of the Department of Health and Human Services and Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia of the Department of Homeland Security. Additional officials participated from the following agencies: the Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of the Interior, Department of Labor, Department of Transportation, Department of the Treasury, Federal Trade Commission and Social Security Administration.
All of the participants pledged to continue collaboration to protect the American public against any harms that might result from the increased use and reliance on AI, algorithms and other advanced technologies. The agencies also agreed to partner on external stakeholder engagement around their collective efforts to advance equity and civil rights in AI.