standards

CES, Robotics & AI

Concerns Arise About Inadequate AI Policy from Unreliable Congress, Says Helen Toner

Earlier that same year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which establishes federal technology standards, published a roadmap for identifying and mitigating the emerging risks of AI. But Congress has yet to pass legislation on AI — or even propose any law as comprehensive as regulations like the EU’s recently enacted AI Act. Colorado recently approved a measure that requires AI companies to use “reasonable care” while developing the tech to avoid discrimination. Consider this example: in many state laws regulating AI, “automated decision making” — a term broadly referring to AI algorithms making some sort of decision, like whether a business receives a loan — is defined differently. Toner thinks that even a high-level federal mandate would be preferable to the current state of affairs.

Zara Khan
June 12, 2024

Robotics & AI

Collaborative Efforts of EU and US to Address AI Safety, Standards, and Research Initiatives

“Through the AI Act and through the [AI safety- and security-focused] Executive Order — which is to mitigate the risks of AI technologies while supporting their uptake in our economies.”Earlier this week the US and the UK signed a partnership agreement on AI safety. Wider information-sharing is envisaged under the US-UK agreement — about “capabilities and risks” associated with AI models and systems, and on “fundamental technical research on AI safety and security”. It also announced a plan to spend £100M on an AI safety taskforce which it said would be focused on so-called foundational AI models. At the UK AI Summit last November, Raimondo announced the creation of a US AI safety institute on the heels of the US Executive Order on AI. Neither the US nor the UK have proposed comprehensive legislation on AI safety, as yet — with the EU remaining ahead of the pack when it comes to legislating on AI safety.

Ava Patel
April 3, 2024

Apps, Security

“Collaborative Efforts: Open Source Foundations Unify to Establish Shared Standards for the EU’s Cybersecurity Resilience Act”

Seven open source foundations are coming together to create common specifications and standards for Europe’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), regulation adopted by the European Parliament last month. And this is what the seven open source foundations are coming together for now. By coming together as one, this should go some way toward treating open source software development as a single “thing” bound by the same standards and processes. Throw into the mix other proposed regulation, including the Securing Open Source Software Act in the U.S., and it’s clear that the various foundations and “open source stewards” will come under greater scrutiny for their role in the software supply chain. “The open source community and the broader software industry now share a common challenge: legislation has introduced an urgent need for cybersecurity process standards.