White House Seeks Public Comments on AI and Federal Data

July 11, 2019

The White House is requesting public comment on which federal data and models should be made available for AI research, development, and testing. Comments are due by August 8, 2019. The request for public comments follows from the Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence, which also requires agencies to identify privacy, civil liberties, and security concerns associated with access federal data sets. The Privacy Act of 1974 imposes limits on how government agencies collect, use, and transfer personal data. In Scientific American, EPIC has strongly favored greater use of federal data that is not personally identifiable, such as statistical data and data concerning climate change, but has warned against the use of personal data maintained by federal agencies for AI projects. EPIC also recently filed comments with the National Institute of Standards and Technology urging the U.S. to implement the OECD Principles on Artificial Intelligence and the Universal Guidelines for AI, which both emphasize the importance of privacy protection in AI research.

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