Artificial Intelligence – Media & Communications Policy

November 21, 2023November 21, 2023 By Adonis Hoffman, Esq.

Why Self-Regulation Is Best for Artificial Intelligence

As the Biden Administration seeks to get its arms around the global phenomenon that is artificial intelligence, it should recognize a few realities.

First, artificial intelligence (AI) is more than an idea whose time has come – it is indelibly written into the fabric of our society. AI has grown from a theoretical, academic concept to an indispensable tool in just about every sector imaginable. It has become ubiquitous and universal, transforming commerce, culture, industry, and individual lives the world over, fostering a new era of innovation.

August 3, 2023August 23, 2023 By Stuart N. Brotman

Congress Needs Real Intelligence To Address Artificial Intelligence

In our age of hyper-partisan politics, one area that seems to be attracting notable bipartisan congressional concern, including various potential legislative approaches, is the real-time development and implementation of artificial intelligence. AI’s reach across many economic sectors and its effect on education, medical research, and national security poses complex legal, social, and moral questions that need to be addressed.

The Senate’s hearings in May clearly demonstrated that Democrats and Republicans were eager to learn more. As Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) noted, “We could be looking at one of the most significant technological innovations in human history.” At the other end of the political spectrum, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) clearly agreed with Hawley’s assessment regarding what is at stake. “The magnitude of the challenge … is substantial. I’m not sure that we respond quickly and with enough expertise to deal with it.”

June 12, 2023June 12, 2023 By Stuart N. Brotman

Media and Other Stakeholders Should Have a Role in Future Pandemic Planning

A major COVID-19 milestone was achieved last month that indicates the downward infection and hospitalization rates caused by it have now receded to justify dropping its designation as an active pandemic. The United States ended its federal Public Health Emergency on May 11 and used that announcement to herald the incredible national effort regarding testing, vaccines, and treatment.

Of course, given recent history, there is a high likelihood that another global pandemic looms. In light of the enormous difficulties nations worldwide faced in developing effective COVID-19 coordinated responses, the task ahead will be equally formidable – namely, how to mitigate massive public health threats in a timely and effective way.

November 8, 2022November 7, 2022 By Adonis Hoffman, Esq.

TikTok Is China’s Trojan Horse

People are easy to dupe. Give us something for free and we will open the door to just about anything in return, including our most sensitive family, health, and financial information.

The ancient Greeks knew something about the human psyche when they built a massive wooden horse and put it outside the enemy gates at Troy. Unsuspecting Trojans marveled at the gift and ushered it inside unexamined. Hidden in the horse were the Greek men of war who emerged to sack the city.

April 7, 2021July 7, 2021 By Stuart N. Brotman

A Third-Way Approach to Regulating Facial Recognition Systems

The use of facial recognition systems powered by algorithms and software continues to raise controversy given their potential use by law enforcement and other government agencies. For over a decade, the Department of Commerce’s National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has evaluated facial recognition to identify and report gaps in its capabilities. Its most recent report in 2019 quantified the effect of age, race, and sex on facial recognition accuracy.

The greatest discrepancies that NIST measured were higher false-positive rates in women, African Americans, and particularly African American women. It noted, “False positives might present a security concern to the system owner, as they may allow access to impostors. False positives also might present privacy and civil rights and civil liberties concerns such as when matches result in additional questioning, surveillance, errors in benefit adjudication, or loss of liberty.”

April 17, 2020August 19, 2020 By Stuart N. Brotman

Deploying U.S. AI Leadership for COVID-19

Among the cutting-edge technologies being employed by public health experts to map various aspects of COVID-19 both at home and abroad, artificial intelligence (AI) faces a test under life-and-death circumstances. The ability of AI systems to undertake pattern detection and predict the spread of the pandemic and its treatments is promising. The benefit of machine learning includes its powerful ability to analyze historic data to find key variables. This task is dependent upon humans, however, specifically in the ability of data scientists who can work on creating data sets that supercomputers then can model. On a global basis, this will require pooling both technical and human resources.

Given the unprecedented nature of COVID-19, historic data inputted for AI analysis may be of limited value. Real-time data comparing growth curves in countries around the world, along with population and demographic information by neighborhood, may prove to be a better vein for producing actionable data anywhere and everywhere. Automated machine learning also may improve the efficiency of data scientists, enabling them to focus on new data generation while relying on computer-to-computer analysis of massive-scale number crunching.