Executive Order 13859: the American AI Initiative
On 11 February 2019 the President of the United States signed Executive Order 13859, 'Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence': five principles, six objectives, and instructions to agencies - OMB to issue a memorandum on regulating AI applications within 180 days, NIST to issue a plan for federal engagement in technical standards within 180 days.
Why it matters
The US government set out an AI policy in an executive order of its own and told agencies to work out an approach to regulating its applications. The order appropriates no money and gives citizens no rights: it binds only agencies.
Section 1 names the policy the American AI Initiative with five principles, among them technical standards and fewer barriers to testing, public trust and the protection of civil liberties. Section 3 gives coordination to the Select Committee on AI of the National Science and Technology Council. Section 4 tells agencies to treat AI as a research priority and to budget for it, with no sum named. Section 6(b) requires OMB to publish a draft of its memorandum for comment first. The 180-day deadline was missed: the draft appeared as a Federal Register notice on 13 January 2020, eleven months later. The record does not describe the final memorandum: it was not read. Section 10(c): the order creates no right enforceable at law.