The U.S. Chamber’s Technology Engagement Center (C_TEC) and Center for Global Regulatory Cooperation (GRC) today released 10 policy principles governing the use and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI).
The principles were crafted in collaboration with more than 50 of the Chamber’s member companies, representing all sizes and sectors of the American business community, and emphasize the need for a sensible and innovation-forward approach to address both the challenges and opportunities of AI.
“The advent of artificial intelligence will revolutionize businesses of all sizes and industries and has the potential to bring significant opportunities and challenges to the way Americans live and work, said Tim Day, Senior Vice President, Chamber Technology Engagement Center. “The U.S. Chamber’s artificial intelligence principles place the Chamber at the forefront of the national conversations on AI and will serve as a comprehensive guide to address the policy issues pertaining to AI for federal, state, and local policymakers.”
The Chamber also endorsed the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s recommendations on AI. Drafted with leadership from the United States and adopted by over 40 partner countries, the recommendations are a flexible governance standard that promotes the responsible stewardship of trustworthy AI.
“As leaders in the development and use of AI, the U.S. business community has a strong interest in supporting a global AI ecosystem,” said Sean Heather, Senior Vice President of International Regulatory Affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Foreign capitals are looking to promote trustworthy AI, without undermining innovation. We encourage them to turn to the Chamber as a partner and to our principles for guidance.”
The U.S. Chamber will continue to work with U.S. legislators and regulators to ensure America leads the way in developing and deploying artificial intelligence.
You can download the principles here.
U.S. Chamber's Artificial Intelligence Principles
To realize the full economic potential of AI, the Chamber offers the following 10 principles:
Recognize Trustworthy AI is a Partnership
Fostering public trust and trustworthiness in AI technologies is necessary to advance its responsible development, deployment, and use. Trustworthy AI encompasses values such as transparency, explainability, fairness, and accountability. The speed and complexity of technological change, however, mean that governments alone cannot promote trustworthy AI The Chamber believes that governments must partner with the private sector, academia, and civil society when addressing issues of public concern associated with AI We recognize and commend existing partnerships that have formed in the AI community to address these challenges, including protecting against harmful biases, ensuring democratic values, and respecting human rights. Finally, any governance frameworks should be flexible and driven by a transparent, voluntary, and multi-stakeholder process.
Be Mindful of Existing Rules and Regulations
AI is a tool and does not exist in a legal vacuum. Policymakers should be mindful that activities performed and decisions aided by AI are often already accountable under existing laws. Where new public policy considerations arise, governments should consider maintaining a sector-specific approach, while removing or modifying those regulations that act as a barrier to AI’s development, deployment, and use. In addition, governments should avoid creating a patchwork of AI policies at the subnational level and should coordinate across governments to advance sound and interoperable practices.
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 development, deployment, and use of AI technologies. An AI use case that involves high risk should therefore face a higher degree of scrutiny than a use case where the risk of concrete harms to individuals is low. To avoid stifling innovation while keeping up with the rapid pace of technological change, industry led, voluntary accountability mechanisms should recognize the different roles companies play within the AI ecosystem and focus on addressing concrete harms to individuals that can be empirically linked to the use of AI technologies. Any regulation of AI should be specific, narrowly tailored to appropriate use cases, and weighed against the economic and social benefits forfeited by its enactment.
Support Private and Public Investment in AI Research and Development
Investment in research and development (R&D) is essential to AI innovation. Governments should encourage and incentivize this investment by partnering directly with businesses at the forefront of AI, promoting flexible governance frameworks such as regulatory sandboxes, utilizing testbeds, and funding both basic R&D and that which spurs innovation in trustworthy AI Policymakers should recognize that advancements in AI R&D happen within a global ecosystem where businesses, universities, and institutions collaborate across borders.
Build an AI-Ready Workforce
AI brings significant opportunities, as well as some challenges, to the workforce. Governments should partner with businesses, universities, and other stakeholders to build a workforce suited for an AI economy. These investments will ensure that workers are prepared to use AI tools and adapt to changing workforce needs. Moreover, policymakers should take steps to attract and retain global and diverse talent.
Promote Open and Accessible Government Data
AI requires access to large and robust data sets to function. Governments possess substantial amounts of data that should be made available and easily accessible in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format to accelerate the development of AI while ensuring appropriate and risk-based cybersecurity and privacy protections. Governments at all levels should improve the quality and usability of data sets through, for example, greater digitization, standardized documentation and formatting, and additional budgetary resources.
Pursue Robust and Flexible Privacy Regimes
Data is critical to the development of AI, and the repurposing of personal data may impact consumer privacy. Clear and consistent privacy protections for personal privacy are therefore a necessary component of trustworthy AI 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 ensuring that consumer privacy rights are preserved. Policymakers should look to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Privacy Principles as a guide for pursuing data protection rules that foster innovation.
Advance Intellectual Property Frameworks that Protect and Promote Innovation
The AI ecosystem is highly dynamic, routinely benefiting from collaboration and open research to fuel commercial innovation, which is often built on a range of open source and proprietary components, such as software frameworks, data, and cloud-enabled processing capabilities. Governments must ensure full respect for IP protection and enforcement with respect to AI Governments should also support an innovation-oriented approach that recognizes the strengths of an open AI ecosystem. Additionally, governments must not require companies to transfer or provide access to AI-related intellectual property, such as source code, algorithms, and data sets.
Commit to Cross-Border Data Flows
The ability to move data across borders and access information determines the speed at which AI technologies can be developed and used in the global economy. The adoption of AI across different sectors and geographies is enabled by cloud computing, which broadens access to AI technologies, including for small and medium-size enterprises. Policies that restrict data flows, such as data localization requirements, constitute market access barriers that will diminish AI-related investment and innovation and limit access to AI technologies. Governments should steadfastly commit to keeping data flowing across international borders.
Abide by International Standards
Industry-led, consensus-based standards are at the heart of digital innovation, including AI technologies. The Chamber encourages policymakers to acknowledge and support the development of such standards in recognized international standards bodies and consortia. Furthermore, governments should likewise leverage industry-led standards on a voluntary basis wherever possible to facilitate the use and adoption of AI technologies.
