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The Ezra Klein Show

What Biden’s Top A.I. Thinker Concluded We Should Do

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Government, News

4.611K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2023

⏱️ 73 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In October, the White House released a 70-plus-page document called the “Blueprint for an A.I. Bill of Rights.” The document’s ambition was sweeping. It called for the right for individuals to “opt out” from automated systems in favor of human ones, the right to a clear explanation as to why a given A.I. system made the decision it did, and the right for the public to give input on how A.I. systems are developed and deployed. For the most part, the blueprint isn’t enforceable by law. But if it did become law, it would transform how A.I. systems would need to be devised. And, for that reason, it raises an important set of questions: What does a public vision for A.I. actually look like? What do we as a society want from this technology, and how can we design policy to orient it in that direction? There are few people who have thought as deeply about those questions as Alondra Nelson. As deputy director and acting director of the Biden White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, she spearheaded the effort to create the A.I. Bill of Rights blueprint. She is now a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study and a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. So I invited her on the show to discuss how the government is thinking about the A.I. policy challenge, what a regulatory framework for A.I. could look like, the possibility of a “public option” for A.I. development and much more. Mentioned: Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework Blueprint for an A.I. Bill of Rights Book Recommendations: Data Driven by Karen Levy The Master Switch by Tim Wu Kindred by Octavia Butler Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Roge Karma, Kristin Lin and Jeff Geld. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. Mixing by Jeff Geld and Efim Shapiro. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Sonia Herrero and Kristina Samulewski.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm Mr. Klein, this is the Ezra Conchell.

0:23.4

It would be easy listening to the discourse about AI to think the government has taken no

0:27.7

notice of this technology at all.

0:37.7

In 2022, the White House released a more than 70-page document called a Blueprint for

0:42.5

an AI Bill of Rights.

0:44.8

The word Blueprint there is a much more important word in that title than rights.

0:49.8

This document is not for the most part enforceable at all.

0:53.2

These are not rights you can sue to protect.

0:56.1

But its release, its creation, was a recognition that at some point soon the government probably

1:01.1

would need to think about creating something enforceable.

1:03.3

And so they needed to start thinking about how society thick with AI should look.

1:09.0

What striking reading the Blueprint is it if it wasn't a Blueprint if it actually was

1:13.1

enforceable, it would utterly transform how AI has to work and look and function.

1:18.8

Not one of the major systems today is even close to conforming to these rules.

1:23.0

It's not even clear that if they wanted to, they technically could.

1:26.9

And that's what makes this a weird document.

1:29.6

Is it a radical piece of work because of what it would demand if implemented?

1:33.3

Is it useless because it doesn't really back up its words with power?

1:37.7

What is it?

1:38.8

And what does it point towards?

1:41.1

The process behind it was led by Alonjian Nelson, who was a scholar of science and technology

1:45.5

who became a deputy director and then acting director of the Biden administration's Office

...

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