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Here Is How The United States Should Regulate Artificial Intelligence Posted on : Jun 29 - 2020

In 1906, in response to shocking reports about the disgusting conditions in U.S. meat-packing facilities, Congress created the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure safe and sanitary food production.

In 1934, in the wake of the worst stock market crash in U.S. history, Congress created the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate capital markets.

In 1970, as the nation became increasingly alarmed about the deterioration of the natural environment, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure cleaner skies and waters.

When an entire field begins to create a broad set of challenges for the public, demanding thoughtful regulation, a proven governmental approach is to create a federal agency focused specifically on engaging with and managing that field.

The time has come to create a federal agency for artificial intelligence.

Across the AI community, there is growing consensus that regulatory action of some sort is essential as AI’s impact spreads. From deepfakes to facial recognition, from autonomous vehicles to algorithmic bias, AI presents a large and growing number of issues that the private sector alone cannot resolve.

In the words of Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai: “There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated. It is too important not to.”

Yet there have been precious few concrete proposals as to what this should look like.

The best way to flexibly, thoroughly, and knowledgeably regulate artificial intelligence is through the creation of a dedicated federal agency.

The Fourth Branch

Though many Americans do not realize it, the primary manner in which the federal government enacts public policy today is not Congress passing a law, nor the President issuing an executive order, nor a judge making a ruling in a court case. Instead, it is federal agencies like the FDA, SEC or EPA implementing rules and regulations.

Though barely contemplated by the framers of the U.S. Constitution, federal agencies—collectively referred to as “the administrative state”—have in recent decades come to assume a dominant role in the day-to-day functioning of the U.S. government.

There are good reasons for this. Federal agencies are staffed by thousands of policymakers and subject matter experts who focus full-time on the fields they are tasked with regulating. Agencies can move more quickly, get deeper into the weeds, and adjust their policies more flexibly than can Congress. View More