GW Experts Available: Biden Administration Unveils Highly-Anticipated Executive Order on AI

The Biden Administration unveiled a highly-anticipated executive order on artificial intelligence (AI) today. According to The Washington Post, it marks the U.S. government’s most significant attempt yet to regulate the fast-moving technology. The order streamlines high-skilled immigration and heralds the use of AI by the federal government, while also calling for new checks on the technology and monitoring the risks of AI.

Faculty experts at the George Washington University are available to offer insight, analysis and commentary on the executive order, including on topics related to building trustworthy AI and regulation efforts here in the U.S. and globally.

Trustworthy AI and AI Governance

Susan Ariel Aaronson is a research professor of international affairs, director of the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub, and co-PI of the NSF Trustworthy AI Institute for Law and Society, where she directs work on data and AI governance as well as directing projects on mapping data sharing and mapping data used for generative AI. Aaronson is also writing on the policy response to generative AI; XR competitiveness, the need for empathy in AI; and how AI is changing international trade. 

David Broniatowski, associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering, is the lead principal investigator of a newly launched, NSF-funded institute called TRAILS that explores trustworthy AI. Broniatowski is leading the institute’s third research thrust of evaluating how people make sense of the AI systems that are developed, and the degree to which their levels of reliability, fairness, transparency and accountability will lead to appropriate levels of trust. Broniatowski is an expert on trustworthy and responsible AI, misinformation, and is the associate director for the GW Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics.

Patrick Hall, a teaching assistant professor of decision sciences, teaches data ethics, business analytics, and machine learning classes. He also conducts research in support of NIST’s AI risk management framework and is affiliated with leading fair lending and AI risk management advisory firms. Hall co-founded BNH.AI, a boutique law firm focused on AI governance and risk management. He led H2O.ai’s efforts in responsible AI, resulting in one of the world’s first commercial applications for explainability and bias mitigation in machine learning. He has also built machine learning software solutions and advised on matters of AI risk for Fortune 100 companies, cutting-edge startups, Big Law, and U.S. and foreign government agencies. 

Anna Lenhart is the Knight Policy Fellow at GW’s Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics. Her research focuses on public engagement in tech policy and the intersections of privacy, transparency, and competition. She most recently served in the House of Representatives as the Senior Technology Legislative Aide to Rep Lori Trahan (117th Congress) and as a Congressional Innovation Fellow for the House Judiciary Digital Markets Investigation (116th Congress). 

Lenhart is sharing her comments about the Executive Order on via X/Twitter here. 

Legal  

Aram Gavoor is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs; Professorial Lecturer in Law; Professor (by courtesy), Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration. Dean Gavoor is an expert in national security, administrative law and federal courts. 

Cori Alonso-Yoder is an Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering. Professor Alonso-Yoder is a nationally recognized scholar on immigration legislation and the impacts of state, local and federal laws on immigrant communities.