To Ensure More Trustworthy AI, Use an Old Government Tool: Public Procurement

Lauren Sarkesian and Leila Doty wrote for ISSUES in Science & Technology about how the federal government can reform its procurement policies to ensure the artificial intelligence it acquires from external vendors is trustworthy and fair.

Employing the federal procurement process as a lever could have widespread impact on AI tools. The tech community, civil society, and government largely agree on the need for fair, accountable, and transparent AI tools, but their opinions often differ on how to operationalize these principles. Most proposals from academics and civil society include ensuring some combination of transparency requirements, assessments of impact bias and statements, and regular independent audits. Some advocates maintain that the Federal Trade Commission already has adequate authority to conduct robust enforcement and pursue rulemaking related to algorithms under the Federal Trade Commission Act’s unfair and deceptive practices provisions, and they call for ramping these up to regulate AI. Federal agencies could and should also enforce existing discrimination laws even where that discrimination is caused by algorithms, and use their rulemaking authority to clarify and apply those laws to algorithmic systems if need be. Another approach has focused on antitrust enforcement, with some policymakers and advocates arguing that these bad data practices are rooted in tech companies’ outsized market power.

To reliably ensure that the technologies people interact with are trustworthy and fair, the nation needs a robust AI regulation strategy that involves a combination of these checks on AI, with an emphasis on impact assessments and rigorous algorithmic auditing. The federal procurement process provides the perfect opportunity to implement such controls. That process is highly formalized, and one that agencies are expected to carry out efficiently and with rigorous standards of conduct to ensure government purchases are based on high standards and serve the public’s interest; after all, these are taxpayer dollars being spent.