Washington (October 31, 2023) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Representative Sara Jacobs (CA-51) led 21 colleagues to urge the Biden-Harris administration to promote the importance of civil rights and democratic values in the governance of AI as the Vice President Kamala Harris joins the UK AI Safety Summit this week. In a letter to Vice President Harris, the lawmakers praised the Administration’s efforts related to AI, including the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, and called for their continued leadership in elevating the principles of AI transparency, data privacy, and protection from algorithmic discrimination on the world stage. The lawmakers’ letter follows the Administration’s landmark Executive Order to ensure responsible and ethical usage of AI.

The lawmakers wrote: “As the United States engages in the Summit, we underscore the importance of ensuring that efforts to govern AI promote fundamental rights and democratic values. Your Administration has already shown clear leadership in developing the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, and we urge you to promote these principles at the Summit.”

The lawmakers continued: “In addition to mitigating global security risks, which is an important priority, there are existing harms to workers, consumers, and marginalized communities that must be urgently addressed. As you participate in the Summit, we ask that you continue to uplift the principles of fairness, accountability and safety, while promoting an inclusive definition of AI safety. We applaud the UK government’s inclusion of a roundtable discussion on societal risks. During this discussion, we hope you will emphasize the impact of algorithmic decision-making on access to opportunities and critical needs, including housing, credit, employment, education, and criminal justice. This work requires participation from a broad range of stakeholders, such as civil society organizations and those most likely to be impacted by AI harms, including marginalized communities across the globe who often do not have a representative voice in these conversations.”

The letter is also signed by Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Representatives Anna Eshoo (CA-16), Barbara Lee (CA-12), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE-AL), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), Derek Kilmer (WA-06), Andy Kim (NJ-03), Jim McGovern (MA-02), Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Ted Lieu (CA-36), Henry Johnson (GA-04), Juan Vargas (CA-52), Lori Trahan (MA-03), Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Valerie Foushee (NC-04), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Don Beyer (VA-08), Gerry Connolly (VA-11), and Raul Grijalva (AZ-07).

Yesterday, Senator Markey and Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) applauded the Biden administration for heeding their call to incorporate the White House Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights into its artificial intelligence (AI) Executive Order. In March, Senators Markey and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), along with Representative Jayapal, led their colleagues in reintroducing their Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act to prevent the government from using facial recognition and other biometric technologies, which pose significant privacy and civil liberties issues and disproportionately harm marginalized communities. In July, Senator Markey and Representative Matsui (CA-07) reintroduced their Algorithmic Justice and Online Platform Transparency Act to ban discriminatory algorithms and improve transparency on social media platforms. In September, Senator Markey and Representative Jayapal recently led six of their colleagues in a letter demanding answers from leading U.S. companies developing and deploying AI—Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Inflection AI, Scale AI, and IBM—on using underpaid and overworked data workers who receive no benefits but keep their companies’ AI products online. In June, he and Senator Gary Peters (D-Mich.) wrote to U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), requesting GAO conduct a detailed technology assessment of the potential harms of generative AI and how to mitigate them.

###