Biden administration takes step forward on AI policy

The Department of Commerce has appointed more than two dozen experts to a committee that will advise President Joe Biden on artificial intelligence policy.

Why it matters: It's the Biden administration's first substantive step to shape U.S. policy on AI, as Europe, China and other countries leap ahead with their own rules.

• Thursday's announcement comes as lawmakers and the public continue to grapple with AI's role in everyday life. House lawmakers launched an investigation into facial-recognition scanning company ID.me Thursday, per the Washington Post.

Driving the news: Twenty-seven people from across the private sector and academia, who were nominated by the public, will make up the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee.

• Creating such a committee was a direct order from the National AI Initiative Act of 2020, passed as part of 2021's National Defense Authorization Act.
• The committee's recommendations will "serve as building blocks for U.S. AI policy for decades to come," U.S. deputy secretary of commerce Don Graves said in the announcement.
• Congress has directed the committee to "submit a report to the President and Congress after the first year, and then again every three years, that provides their findings and recommendations..."

Details: The committee includes executives from companies like Google, Workday, Salesforce, NVIDIA, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services along with academics from Carnegie Mellon, Stanford and Cornell.

• Part of the group's focus will be on "matters related to the use of AI in law enforcement," including bias and data security, per the announcement.

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