by Daniel Parker, RDPFS Intern
To ensure that new developments in AI (artificial intelligence) protect the rights of Americans in diverse communities, The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has released a blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. As stated in the introduction to the blueprint, inappropriate or biased use of technology such as algorithms serving patient care systems and making hiring and credit decisions, as well as rampant data collection, prove to be “among the great challenges posed to democracy today.” To combat this, the blueprint presents five principles: Safe and Effective Systems; Algorithmic Discrimination Protections; Data Privacy; Notice and Explanation; and Human Alternatives, Consideration, and Fallback. In keeping with the blueprint’s specified protections for people with disabilities, the Partnership for Employment and Accessible Technology (PEAT), led by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), has produced the AI and Disability Inclusion Toolkit for “implementing equitable AI in the workplace.” The Toolkit defines equitable AI as “AI technologies that humans intentionally design, develop, and implement to result in more equitable outcomes for everyone, including people with disabilities.” Among the toolkit’s many resources is the Equitable AI Playbook, developed to help people make a case for implementing equitable AI in their organization. You can find out much more about equitable AI by reading the links above, as well as the blueprint’s fact sheet and the Department of Labor’s blog post on What the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights Means for Workers.
