NIST Launches Program to Better Understand AI Societal Impact

Organizations will soon have a tool to measure the societal risks and impacts of artificial intelligence technologies.

With the Assessing Risks and Impacts of AI program, the National Institute of Standards and Technology offers organizations and individuals a technology to test, evaluate, validate and verify AI capabilities and how they will affect society.

ARIA builds on NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework, operationalizing the framework’s risk measurement function to analyze and monitor risks and impacts associated with the emerging technology, NIST .gov reported.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that with the growing use of AI, there is a need to test how it functions in real-life scenarios. She added that with the ARIA program, the department shows its commitment to President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI, working to address risks and maximize the benefits offered by the technology. 

NIST is not the only organization curious about emerging technology’s societal impact. In early May, the National Science Foundation entered into a collaborative agreement with Northeastern University to study the long-term impact of generative AI and large language model use on society.