AI Companies’ Voluntary Commitment to Implementing Safeguards Is Important First Step; More Is Needed to Ensure AI Accountability and Equity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2023
Contact: Dena Craig, 202-466-3311

AI Companies’ Voluntary Commitment to Implementing Safeguards Is Important First Step; More Is Needed to Ensure AI Accountability and Equity 

WASHINGTON — Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement after the Biden administration’s push for more effective artificial intelligence (AI) safeguards:  

“Today’s announcement around AI technology underscores the need for real oversight, transparency and accountability, and strong measures to ensure the prevention of the proliferation of mis- and disinformation, hate and bias, and all manner of assaults on civil rights. The voluntary commitments of the companies who have pledged to implement safeguards are welcome. Voluntary efforts in the past have not ensured either consumer safety or societal good over harm. The civil rights community will be actively working to ensure these commitments are successful.

“The Biden administration has rightly stated that legislation is necessary. We need real transparency and accountability and, as the administration recognizes, more work needs to be done. We need solutions-oriented technology, and we need to prevent the proliferation of hate, bias, and mis- and disinformation that generative AI threatens to empower and expand. We need civil rights-centered federal AI legislation to ensure equity as new technologies are released and deployed almost daily.

“The civil rights community has a major role to play in measuring human-centered approaches, equitable outcomes, and an America that lives up to its ideals.”

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. 

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