[Khari Johnson in The Markup]

The Republican legislature is working on ensuring that AI is unencumbered by regulations or protections:

"The moratorium, bundled in to a sweeping budget reconciliation bill this week, also threatens 30 bills the California Legislature is currently considering to regulate artificial intelligence, including one that would require reporting when an insurance company uses AI to deny health care and another that would require the makers of AI to evaluate how the tech performs before it’s used to decide on jobs, health care, or housing."

There are lots of reasons why this is very bad - not least because AI is so prone to hallucinations and bias. It is sometimes used as a black box to justify intentionally discriminatory decision-making or to prevent more progressive processes from being enacted.

It also undermines basic privacy rights enjoyed by residents in more forward-thinking states like California:

"The California Privacy Protection Agency sent a letter to Congress Monday that says the moratorium “could rob millions of Americans of rights they already enjoy” and threatens critical privacy protections approved by California voters in 2020, such as the right to opt out of business use of automated decisionmaking technology and transparency about how their personal information is used."

Of course, a bill being pushed forward in the House is not the same thing as it becoming law. But this is one to watch, and something that belies the close relationship between the current administration and AI vendors.

#AI

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