As the race toward widespread AI implementation presses on, the U.S. government is under pressure to develop frameworks to ensure innovation is embraced while continuing to emphasize democratic values. There continues to be global concern that overreliance on AI can have negative effects on privacy and discrimination, and measures are being taken to ensure governments are out in front of such controversies. In that spirit, the White House has released a blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.
The objective of this blueprint is to identify key principles that should guide the design, use, and deployment of automated systems to protect the American public in the age of artificial intelligence. The White House has identified five key principles as part of this blueprint: safe and effective systems; algorithmic discrimination protections; data privacy; notice and explanation; and human alternatives, consideration, and fallback.
As part of the first principle listed above, the White House states, “Systems should undergo pre-deployment testing, risk identification and mitigation, and ongoing monitoring that demonstrate they are safe and effective based on their intended use, mitigation of unsafe outcomes including those beyond the intended use, and adherence to domain-specific standards.” This aligns with a well-established need for regular testing and validation of AI/ML in order to garner widespread warfighter trust.
With policies such as this blueprint for an AI bill of rights and the Department of Defense’s 2022 framework for Responsible AI, it is clear there is an urgency to develop policies to guide ethical adoption. However, these policies must be paired with innovative technology solutions in order to see significant progress in the near future.
What government agencies require is an independent, rigorous, and automated solution for independent testing and validation of AI/ML. We know the need for testing these systems is not going to diminish—in fact, it will only become more urgent. This also means that the current ad hoc practices employed by most government agencies will not be able to keep up with the need for rapid adoption. This is where solutions such as CalypsoAI’s VESPR Validate can be an accelerator to the current MLOps pipeline.
CalypsoAI fully supports and applauds the White House for considering all these factors as the U.S. government seeks to embrace its data-driven future. The time is now to turn these concepts into reality, and a standardized framework for developing, testing, validating, and deploying AI is key to achieving widespread innovation.