Management and Budget, released a memo that could revolutionise the use of AI in government in the US.’ Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters Last month, Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, released a memo that could revolutionise the use of AI in government in the US.’ Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters OpinionArtificial intelligence (AI) The US is racing ahead in its bid to control artificial intelligence – why is the EU so far behind? -- Washington is laying down rules for the use of seemingly mundane AI that could, in fact, be incredibly dangerous -- technical breakthroughs, the world has recently been paying close attention to the frontiers of AI research. But last month the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the US released a memo on the use of more mundane AI systems in government that is likely, in the near term at least, to be equally consequential. -- algorithms police departments deploy to surveil populations and allocate resources, AI is now a common tool of the US government to cut costs – but at the expense of subjecting society’s most vulnerable to -- president’s programme. And last month, the OMB director, Shalanda Young, released a memo that could revolutionise the use of AI in government in the US. -- The proposed policy – it is still a draft, and could be watered down – would require each department to appoint a chief AI officer and have them provide a register of existing AI use cases. This alone is a significant win for transparency. But in addition, the officer must -- There are new requirements to weigh AI systems’ risks to rights and safety against their claimed benefits. Agencies will also have to -- the systems once they have been deployed. Crucially, those affected by AI systems are to receive plain language explanations of how AI is being used, and the opportunity to contest AI decisions. Members of the European parliament take part in a voting session as they consider the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, Strasbourg, France, 14 June 2023. Members of the European parliament take part in a voting session as they consider the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, Strasbourg, France, 14 June 2023. Photograph: Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images -- The policy would also compel departments to actively ensure that AI systems will advance equity, dignity and fairness in how they are -- Impressively, the memo even addresses the deeply unsexy but important question of government procurement of AI. So many societal problems with AI start with inexperienced government agencies adopting new software that they don’t adequately understand, which is oversold by -- off most severely. Describing and requiring best practices for procurement of AI systems is one of the most significant things government departments can do right now. The stupidity of AI Read more -- The OMB memo is a case study in research and civil society-led policymaking. Current attempts to regulate frontier AI models (which can perform a wide range of tasks, including language and image -- 2023, surprised by the popularity of ChatGPT, the EU parliament attempted to bolt on regulations for frontier AI systems to its (already flawed) AI Act. In the trilogue negotiations now taking place – where the parliament, the European Commission and the European -- and Germany recently pushed back, as they realised the possible implications of these proposals for their fast-rising domestic AI companies (Mistral and Aleph Alpha respectively). This disarray was predictable. GPT-4, the most capable frontier AI model, had barely been released when the first regulatory proposals -- research breakthroughs is hard. The ecosystem for deploying these systems is also fast-changing; will AI companies operate like platforms, tending to monopoly or duopoly power? Or will there be a robust competitive market for frontier AI models? We don’t yet know. There hasn’t been time for public interest research to offer balanced -- Some ideas for regulating frontier systems are no-brainers – the EU and others should clearly require far more transparency from the leading AI labs, especially with respect to any dangerous capabilities revealed by the next generation of AI systems. But beyond this, the wisest course may be not to rush things, and to foster the kind of civil society -- University and a distinguished research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics in AI Explore more on these topics * Artificial intelligence (AI) * Opinion