NIST Taps Stakeholders in Creating Guidance for Responsible AI Use

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is currently reaching out to various stakeholders as it tries to draft new guidance on the responsible use of artificial intelligence. In putting together the Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework as directed by Congress, the NIST is seeking insights by issuing a request for information, NextGov reported Monday.

Elham Tabassi, NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory chief of staff, said the institute wants the AI RMF to reflect the diverse experiences and expertise of those who design, develop, use and evaluate AI. Responses to the RFI are due Aug. 19 and will inform the framework’s early days of production, she added.

While AI capabilities are transforming how humans work in meaningful ways, they also present new technical and societal challenges. A note in the NIST’s RFI reads that “there is no objective standard for ethical values, as they are grounded in the norms and legal expectations of specific societies or cultures.”

Still, NIST officials agree that AI must be made, assessed and used in a manner that fosters public confidence. In order to build and maintain the public’s trust in the emerging technology, AI systems must be built to align with core values in society, and in ways that minimize harms to individuals, groups, communities and societies at large, the NIST said.

Congress has directed the NIST to engage the public and private sectors in developing a new voluntary guide to improve how people manage risks across the AI lifecycle. Towards this end, Tabassi pointed to some of the agency’s existing AI-aligned efforts target the cultivation of trust in the design, development, use and governance of AI.

Tabassi said the NIST’s current assignment is to develop data and establish benchmarks to evaluate the technology, participating in the making of technical AI standards.