Listening to industry before US pols vote on biometric, digital ID laws

The need for U.S. rules to control domestic use of AI has persuaded some lawmakers to push for outside help in legislating high-risk technology.

Biometric surveillance, digital identity infrastructure and data privacy are among the AI sectors confusing pols in the Senate and House. Congressional proponents of ongoing outreach to experts say neither the nation nor the economy can wait these ideas to be commonly understood.

If Washington needs examples of how to draw AI businesses into the regulatory mix (although Congress has done this repeatedly for significant technology advances), it can look at NIST. Officials in the National Institute of Standards and Technology have few qualms seeking input from the preeminent minds on tech.

Perhaps it is a coincidence, but NIST this week issued a request for information on the best ways to implement a federal standards strategy for “critical and emerging technology,” including digital ID.

Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, told political online journal Politico that he favors the blue-ribbon commission approach.

Lieu is endorsing House resolution 4223, which is sponsored by a Republican and a Democrat. It would convene experts to translate a technology’s fundamentals, risks and importance on an ongoing basis.

Also this week, a bipartisan trio of U.S. congressmen revived an effort to bring a long dissolved tech-assessment agency that until 1995 performed much the same function.

One of the congressmen, Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, made the case for an unbiased assessment group to keep pols current on data privacy and other new and evolving areas.

Article Topics

AI  |  biometrics  |  data privacy  |  digital identity  |  legislation  |  regulation  |  United States