AI regulatory agencies consolidate expertise and replace a patchwork-based approach.

AI is developing at a breakneck pace and governments need to catch up. The establishment of AI regulatory agencies helps to consolidate expertise and reduces the risk of a patchwork approach.

The UK has already established an Office for Artificial Intelligence and the EU is currently legislating for an AI Board. Similarly, in the US, Representative Ted Lieu has announced legislation to create a non-partisan AI Commission with the aim of establishing a regulatory agency. These efforts need to be sped up and taken up around the world.

We recommend that national AI agencies be established in line with a blueprint developed by Anton Korinek at Brookings. Korinek proposes that an AI agency have the power to:

Monitor public developments in AI progress and define a threshold for which types of advanced AI systems fall under the regulatory oversight of the agency (e.g. systems above a certain level of compute or that affect a particularly large group of people).

Mandate impact assessments of AI systems on various stakeholders, define reporting requirements for advanced AI companies and audit the impact on people’s rights, wellbeing, and society at large. For example, in systems used for biomedical research, auditors would be asked to evaluate the potential for these systems to create new pathogens.

Establish enforcement authority to act upon risks identified in impact assessments and to prevent abuse of AI systems.

Publish generalized lessons from the impact assessments such that consumers, workers and other AI developers know what problems to look out for. This transparency will also allow academics to study trends and propose solutions to common problems.

Beyond this blueprint, we also recommend that national agencies around the world mandate record-keeping of AI safety incidents, such as when a facial recognition system causes the arrest of an innocent person. Examples include the non-profit AI Incident Database and the forthcoming EU AI Database created under the European AI Act.