Delaware lawmakers consider creating AI Commission
DELAWARE- Delaware Representative Krista Griffith is introducing a new bill to establish a state Artificial Intelligence (AI) Commission. The board would be made up of 17 positions, comprising of two lawmakers, one constitutional law expert, and cabinet heads from across Delaware.
Rep. Griffith says the proposed commission would build on a previous bill that helped to expand privacy rights online for Delawareans. “The next step in the data privacy realm, and then technology, is the use of AI,” she said.
The commission would have two key focuses, says Rep. Griffith; improving service delivery within the state, and protecting privacy.
“We must make sure that we’re providing the proper protections, and protections of rights of our individuals,” Rep. Griffith said. “To make sure that it’s not used to marginalize further marginalized communities or take away creativity, displace jobs.”.
Business Analytics Professor at Delaware State University (DSU), Darold Wentzien, says AI is only as good as the data sets it’s trained on; those can often come with biases. For that reason, he says any decisions made by AI must be labeled as such, and have human oversight.
“There needs to be some supervision, or someone making sure that any dataset used in the models is good, and to make sure that the results are coming out are validated in some way,” Wentzien said.
However, Wentzien says good oversight isn’t just about preventing bad outcomes; it also means making sure the technology works for people. He believes healthcare can be a critical field where smart AI can be deployed. Wentzien said using AI could possibly help lead to more accurate diagnoses or methods for determining effective treatment paths.
“Again, going back, there has to be that reliable check to make sure that that is working for you. And, you’ve got to build trust,” Wentzien said.
At DSU, Wentzien says the company FICO has currently partnered with the school’s students to help train them on solving problem sets with multiple tools. They include machine learning, and Wentzien says that’s an example of the human oversight that he believes should be a part of that system.
