Seth Lazar: The US is on top of AI regulation, while the EU is in disarray

Washington is laying down rules for even routine AI use, which can infringe rights, and it’s a model that a policy-divided Europe should follow, writes Seth Lazar

British prime minister Rishi Sunak shakes hands with Elon Musk at the AI Safety Summit on artificial intelligence use earlier this month. This kind of mature civil debate is to be welcomed.

Between fancy global summits, OpenAI’s boardroom drama, and rumoured technical breakthroughs, the world has been paying close attention to AI research. But, last month, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a memo on the use of more mundane AI systems in government that is likely to be equally consequential.

From tracking undocumented migrants, to the predictive algorithms police departments deploy to surveil people and allocate resources, AI is a routine tool of the US government to cut costs, but at the expense of subjecting society’s most vulnerable to arbitrary rule without due process, and with predictably discriminatory outcomes. Researchers, journalists, and activists have been calling attention to this for years. That call is being answered.