Miriam Vogel, who has served as chair of the National AI Advisory Committee (NAIAC) since May 2022, claimed during a recent interview that government regulation and intervention were necessary to achieve “inclusivity” through artificial intelligence (AI).
Vogel’s job in the Biden administration involves advising President Joe Biden and the White House on AI policy, according to her LinkedIn profile. She also serves as the president and CEO of EqualAI, a nonprofit organization dedicated to decreasing supposed “unconscious bias” in AI.
In a June 28 interview with the European New School of Digital Studies, Vogel emphasized the need for the government to push “inclusivity” in AI.
“We can ensure that AI creates more opportunity, more jobs, more education, more inclusivity,” she declared. “So I think that is the role of government and civil society, is to mandate what the expectations are. If you’re using AI, here are the ways you need to make sure that society is ready. I think the government has to play that role in leading on how society can be ready.”
Vogel went on to argue that AI has a lot of potential for the advancement of society but claimed that government intervention through regulations, mandates, and collaboration were necessary to move forward.
When asked about content moderation in relation to AI, Vogel claimed that it is necessary to have “a multi-stakeholder process where we have industry, government, private-public partnerships where civil society comes in as well and helps together answer these questions of what are we exposing ourselves to and our next generation.”
“It needs to have regulatory pieces, but we also need industry playing a role,” she added.
In a report published in May, the NAIAC praised Biden’s dedication to pushing so-called inclusivity in AI.
“President Biden has clearly articulated his interest in ending discrimination and bias (including algorithmic discrimination and bias),” the report read.
Vogel has focused much of her career on combating supposed “bias” in many areas of American society, including law enforcement, the workplace, and LGBT issues, according to the Brookings Institution. She also served in the Obama administration as associate deputy attorney general, where she led the creation of “Implicit Bias Training for Federal Law Enforcement.”
Vogel’s comments come after the Biden administration published a “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights” in October 2022 — which cited the company Vogel controls, EqualAI, as a stakeholder that was consulted by the Office of Science and Technology Policy during the crafting of the document. Biden also signed an executive order in February that mandated all federal agencies ensure their use of AI promotes racial equity.
The ”Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights” repeatedly uses the word “bias” throughout the document, claiming that protecting citizens should include protections “against abuse, bias, and discrimination to ensure that all people are treated fairly when automated systems are used.”
The document goes on to claim that advancement is necessary “to protect the public from algorithmic discrimination to use and design automated systems in an equitable way,” and argues that “algorithms used in hiring and credit decisions have been found to reflect and reproduce existing unwanted inequities or embed new harmful bias and discrimination.”
Conservatives have blasted the Biden administration’s AI efforts, with the Epoch Times writing: “This would take the tech/woke alliance to a whole new, truly terrifying level.”
“This would take the tech/woke alliance to a whole new, truly terrifying level.”
The Biden admin is pushing to transform #ArtificialIntelligence to promote a woke agenda and to censor conservatives, warned a conservative watchdog group. https://t.co/zXygL3FH7i
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) July 4, 2023
