New Trump Administration AI Guidance Leaves Civil Rights Behind
By Mariah Wildgen
As one of the largest consumers of artificial intelligence (AI) products, tools, and services, the federal government has a responsibility to everyone in the United States to set the standard for companies that create and use AI. The government’s adoption of strong safeguards around emerging technologies like AI means products that work better for all of us.
On April 4, the Trump administration issued updated guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on federal agencies’ uses of AI. A recent survey by Americans for Responsible Innovation found that a majority of voters don’t want the government to use AI to make decisions. The public is right to be concerned, especially as more reports emerge about the role that AI is playing in Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency’s” (DOGE’s) “slash and burn” strategy. At a minimum, if the government is going to use AI in decision making processes, it must be sure to protect the people it serves against faulty or biased AI.
The original OMB guidance directed federal agencies to assess the civil rights harms from rights-impacting or safety-impacting AI. In The Leadership Conference’s advocacy ahead of the original memo, we argued that AI systems and tools must be shown to be safe, trustworthy, and enabling of rights-protecting outcomes before it is put into use. We stand by that principle. Though this new guidance reaffirms a commitment to trust, safety, and fairness, it leaves out critical language around explicit civil rights enforcement and transparency.
Every person living in the U.S. should be certain that if the government is using technology, especially AI, it does so in a way that protects our civil rights and is transparent. We know that AI is already being used to make decisions that impact our lives — determining whether or not someone can access lifesaving health care, is able to secure a mortgage to purchase their first home, or is subject to detention and deportation for their protected speech, to name a few examples.
The lack of transparency and focus on civil rights also comes at a time when Elon Musk is trying to turn our government into a badly run tech company, moving fast without regard for who or what he breaks, and without any accountability. There are numerous reports of DOGE already using AI to determine what resources and public servants to cut from the federal government, with an eye toward replacing federal workers with crappy AI bots. There are also new allegations that DOGE is using AI to surveil workers to identify individuals they think oppose President Trump and his agenda. Musk has led DOGE with no regard for our rights and no insight into how our data is being used in these AI systems. Meanwhile, Trump is cheering on Musk and DOGE along the way.
Even if Musk leaves his dubious position in the Trump administration, these concerns will remain. Really, any sort of departure by Musk is a distraction — a red herring to appease the public given Musk’s public approval rating is underwater. There is nothing stopping Musk from continuing to influence Trump from the outside and avoiding any form of accountability for plundering our personal data to train his private company’s AI system and prime the way for tax breaks and lucrative federal contracts (while he already earns $8 million a day in federal contracts). Musk got what he came for and is primed to walk away scot-free. And, presumably, DOGE will still remain — untethered and unaccountable.
In order to ensure the U.S. continues to lead in AI innovation, we must ensure that American-made products actually work. Products that harm and trample civil rights are inherently faulty. Using AI without proper transparency and accountability is unacceptable. While strong in some areas, the lack of explicit civil rights guidance and transparency measures in the updated OMB memo opens the door for faulty and harmful AI with real-world consequences for everyone who calls the U.S. home.
Mariah Wildgen is the senior strategic communications manager at The Leadership Conference and its Center for Civil Rights and Technology.