A Fair Artificial Intelligence Research & Regulation (FAIRR) Bureau
Summary
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming our everyday reality, and it has the potential to save or to cost lives. Innovation is advancing at a breakneck pace, with technology developers engaging in de facto policy-setting through their decisions about the use of data and the embedded bias in their algorithms. Policymakers must keep up. Otherwise, by ceding decision-making authority to technology companies, we face the rising threat of becoming a technocracy. Given the potential benefits and threats of AI to US national security, economy, health, and beyond, a comprehensive and independent agency is needed to lead research, anticipate challenges posed by AI, and make policy recommendations in response. The Biden-Harris Administration should create the Fair Artificial Intelligence Research & Regulation (FAIRR) Bureau, which will bring together experts in technology, human behavior, and public policy from all sectors – public, private, nonprofit, and academic – to research and develop policies that enable the United States to leverage AI as a positive force for national security, economic growth, and equity. The FAIRR Bureau will adopt the interdisciplinary, evidence-based approach to AI regulation and policy needed to address this unprecedented challenge.
These ideas aim to advance the detailed policy solutions needed to foster public trust and implement fairness in the adoption of AI across diverse domains, from healthcare and government benefits to rural access, education, and worker protections.
The evidence is clear: algorithmic pay-setting is established in app-based work, and payroll/timekeeping failures show how software can produce systemic wage harm at scale
While a few states have taken steps to implement decision-making mechanisms for certain AI systems, too many leaders are simply accepting narratives about AI’s purported public benefit at face value – jumping to the “how” of AI implementation before thoroughly vetting potential systems and deciding whether they are appropriate to use at all.
When properly structured — with specific numeric targets, secured financial obligations, independent monitoring, and meaningful enforcement — CBAs transform data center deals into durable community partnerships.