The U.S. Intelligence Community has introduced a new framework and a set of guiding principles for IC agencies to follow in order to promote the ethical development and use of artificial intelligence.
“The IC leads in developing and using technology crucial to our national security mission, and we cannot do so without recognizing and acting on its ethical implications,” National Intelligence director Rep. John Ratcliffe said in a statement published Thursday.
“These principles and their accompanying framework will help guide our mission leads and data scientists as they implement technology to solve intelligence problems,” he added.
The Principles of AI Ethics for the IC document seeks to ensure that AI platforms are developed and implemented in a way that respects the law and safeguards privacy and civil rights. The principles also call for the community to consider transparency and accountability, apply human judgment, adopt best practices to build up security and resilience and engage with the scientific and technology communities when it comes to AI development and use.
The AI Ethics Framework sheds lights on the factors the community considers when it comes to using AI in addressing national security threats. The framework includes policy considerations and legal obligations governing AI and data, questions to ask to ensure objectivity and mitigate undesired bias and documentation of purpose, limitations, parameters and design outcomes.
“The use of AI provides new opportunities, but we must decide how to best use it to advance our mission. The Principles and Framework will provide a consistent approach,” added Ben Huebner, ODNI Civil Liberties protection officer.
