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White House unveils its 'blueprint' for an AI Bill of Rights
On Tuesday, the White House OSTP released its long-awaited Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights to help guide AI development while safeguarding the rights of the American public.
Biden elevates science advisor to cabinet role for the first time
President-elect Joe Biden has named Eric Lander as OSTP director and presidential science advisor, putting the advisor in the cabinet for the first time.
White House cautions against over-regulating AI in new guidelines
Today, the White House proposed 10 principles for federal agencies to consider when regulating artificial intelligence, Reuters reports. The guidelines stress limiting regulatory "overreach" and encourage Europe and other allies to "avoid heavy handed innovation-killing models."
Trump’s science and tech report focuses on deregulation
Today, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a report on what it considers to be the Trump administration's achievements in advancing science and tech over the past year. "The Trump administration is committed to advancing technological development and conducting research and development to ensure national security, grow the economy, create well-paying jobs and improve the lives of Americans across this great nation," says the report. "Over the past year, OSTP has led coordinated administration efforts to promote emerging technologies, empower Americans to innovate and defend American technologies abroad."
Obama's science advisors are reportedly still hard at work
The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), a group meant to provide the president and White House officials with scientific and technological analyses and advice, has largely emptied out since Donald Trump took office. But as STAT News reports, a fair amount of Obama-era OSTP staffers have kept up their work. "It is certainly true that MANY of the former OSTP staffers are working, in a variety of ways, to fill the void," John Holdren, the OSTP director under Obama, told STAT.
Can big data and AI fix our criminal-justice crisis?
America, land of the free. Yeah, right. Tell that to the nearly 7 million people incarcerated in the US prison system. The United States holds the dubious distinction of having the highest per capita incarceration rate of any nation on the planet -- 716 inmates for every 100,000 population. We lock up more of our own people than Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan or Russia. And once you're in, you stay in. A 2005 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) followed 400,000 prisoners in 30 states after their release and found that within just three years, more than two-thirds had been rearrested. That figure rose to over 75 percent by 2010.
The US' first privacy-focused technology officer has left after one year
The White House gave hope to critics of US government surveillance when it nominated a privacy-minded Deputy CTO last year, but it appears that those privacy reform efforts just hit a snag. Nicole Wong has left the position after a little over a year. Neither Wong nor the Office of Science and Technology Policy have explained the departure, although the former official will be returning to her family in California. We've reached out for more details, including the prospects for a replacement.
