Additional reports from the Congressional Research Service that are newly available online include these (all pdf):
“Department of Defense Fuel Costs in Iraq,” July 23, 2008.
“The Global Nuclear Detection Architecture: Issues for Congress,” July 16, 2008.
“Foreign Science and Engineering Presence in U.S. Institutions and the Labor Force,” updated July 23, 2008.
“Intelligence Reform at the Department of Energy: Policy Issues and Organizational Alternatives,” July 28, 2008.
“Retroactive Immunity Provided by the FISA Amendments Act of 2008,” July 25, 2008.
As useful as some CRS reports are, they are rarely if ever the last word on any given subject. The new CRS report on retroactive immunity and the FISA Amendments Act, for example, does not encompass the challenging constitutional questions discussed by Glenn Greenwald in this ACLU blog entry.
The clearinghouse will also neutrally mediate the assignment of auditors to audits—strengthening independence, trust, and ethical governance across the AI ecosystem.
The potential implication of these evidence gaps becomes more consequential when you look at how institutions actually make decisions day to day.
Every new institution inherits something – existing incentives, existing staff, decades of prior investment that shaped what’s possible.
This is not the first time Google has agreed to censor imagery at the behest of governments, but be warned: obfuscation at this broad level poses a direct threat to the public’s ability to monitor and scrutinize government operations.