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Policy for Public Interest Technology
Advancing PIT policy at a critical moment in the deployment of AI systems
Jasmine McNealy is a Fellow with the Public Interest Technology program at New America. An attorney, critical public interest technologist, and social scientist who studies emerging media and technology with a view toward influencing law and policy, she is associate professor at the University of Florida, where she convenes ICED Labs, and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
In October 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy published “A Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights,” a nonbinding white paper to guide the design, use, and deployment of automated systems within the United States. While some researchers have questioned its actual impact on federal policy thus far, the document is an important step toward developing structures and systems that help to mitigate inequities connected to the algorithmic and machine learning systems that are being implemented across sectors at a rapid pace. It also points to ways that PIT-UN members can engage in policy work to advance public interest technology. But first, some context.
The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights is especially notable in the context of the United States, where efforts to create and enforce effective technology policy have usually failed or fallen well short of adequately protecting the public from harms. It also points to the potential for members of the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) to intervene in the policy sphere at a critical moment in the development and deployment of AI systems.
As a social scientist and lawyer, I study the impact of emerging media and technology on individuals and communities. The ultimate goal of my research is to inform policymaking that could mitigate such harms as our widespread loss of privacy and the over-surveillance of communities by private companies and government. Many of you will recognize that in the U.S., the dearth of federal laws and policies for digital privacy and data protection has allowed these harms to run rampant.
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The speed of innovation and the rush to adopt new technologies in government and civil society exacerbate possible negative impacts of technology. Governments and civil society organizations, which arguably serve the vast majority of the population, are already using technology like AI in both high- and low-stakes systems, and yet they rarely if ever consult the communities most affected in the development, deployment, and maintenance of these technologies.
All industries that bring new technologies to market, from cars to TVs to digital currencies, develop a relational dynamic with the policymakers whose job it is to oversee and regulate them. The current power dynamic between the tech industry and policymakers is altogether symbiotic, asymmetric, and reactive. OpenAI and other artificial intelligence developers that are rushing generative AI tools to market send the message — overtly or implicitly — that the public is powerless to stop them, and indeed even our policymakers may not know how to adequately respond. What’s important about the government’s AI blueprint is that it provides a way forward, a route toward agency, for those seeking to create policy for AI systems and services as they become ubiquitous.
This is where PIT-UN comes in. PIT-UN members have long recognized where higher education might intervene, creating innovative programing, courses, and collaborations to engage students and partners from government, civil society, industry, and local communities in shaping technology development and use. My charge, as the PIT Policy Fellow, is to help us figure out how policy might be useful in the PIT context.
By policy, I mean the combination of law, guidelines, and processes that implement the values or objectives of those creating them. The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, for example, clearly distills the core values of the current administration regarding AI — but actual policy will be required to implement those values.
Likewise, policy could significantly affect the success of PIT programs, especially those on public university campuses. Policy could assist with funding, collaborations, incentives for faculty and staff, and other important considerations. University policies, for instance, could be written to facilitate sharing of funding resources across universities, as well as valuing faculty and staff PIT (and other) efforts that do not result in traditional publications. And state legislatures could initiate policies to help sustain outreach programs. How these and other policies supporting PIT might look may be different for each context.
As a PIT Policy Fellow, I’ll be investigating, along with you, the possibilities for policy and policy frameworks such as the AI blueprint, and how they can facilitate the success of PIT programming and collaborations. If you have any thoughts about the intersection of policy and PIT, you can reach me at mcnealy [at] newamerica.org. I look forward to hearing from you.