July22,2016

OfficeofScience&TechnologyPolicy,EisenhowerExecutiveOfficeBuilding,1650PennsylvaniaAvenue,Washington,DC20504

RequestForInformation:PreparingForTheFutureOfArtificialIntelligence

TheInternetAssociationsubmitsthesecommentsinresponsetotheWhiteHouseOfficeofScienceandTechnologyPolicy(OSTP)requestforinformationregardingthepolicyimplicationsofArtificialIntelligence(AI).

The Internet Association represents almost 40 of the world’s leading Internet companies.1Ourmissionistofosterinnovation,promoteeconomicgrowth,andempowerpeoplethroughthefreeandopeninternet.Asthevoiceoftheworld’sleadingInternetcompanies,ourjobistoensurethatall stakeholders understand the benefits the internet brings to our economy. Several InternetAssociationmembercompanieshavemadesignificantinvestmentsinAItechnology.Forexample,Amazon’s Science team, eBay’sExpertmaker structureddata team, Facebook’sAIResearchLab,andGoogle’scross-companyAIresearch teamallare leadingadvancements in theAI field.Andbeyondthesespecificexamples,itisclearthatoverallprivatesectorinvestmentinAItechnologyhasincreasedsignificantlyinpastyears,from$1.7billionin2010to$14.9billionin2014,2makingtheOSTP’srequestforinformationanimportantandtimelyone.

In its request for information, OSTP asks a range of questions related to AI, some of whichhighlightissuesbeyondtheIA’smission.However,insofarasthequestionsrelatetoourexpertise,werequestthatOSTPandtheadministrationingeneraladheretothefollowingthreeprinciplesastheyconsiderAIpolicygoingforward:

• First, although AI raises interesting public policy questions, they are not necessarily uncharted territory. In fact, U.S. policymakers have immersed themselves in similarly complex debates before and have developed significant institutional expertise and skills thataretransferabletotheAIspace.

• Second,theU.S.governmentcananddoesplayanimportantroleinfosteringAItechnology bothathomeandabroad.Thisrolerangesbetweenpracticalpoliciessuchassupportfor STEMeducationathomeandengaginginsophisticatedeconomicdiplomacyabroad.

1 The Internet Association’s members include Airbnb, Amazon, Coinbase, DoorDash, Dropbox, eBay, Etsy, Expedia, Facebook, FanDuel, Google, Groupon, Handy, IAC, Intuit, LinkedIn, Lyft, Monster Worldwide, Netflix, Pandora, PayPal, Pinterest, Practice Fusion, Rackspace, reddit, Salesforce.com, Snapchat, Spotify, SurveyMonkey, Ten-X, TransferWise, TripAdvisor, Turo, Twitter, Uber Technologies, Inc., Yahoo!, Yelp, Zenefits, and Zynga. 2 Trabulsi, Andrew. “The Future of Artificial Intelligence,” Institute for the Future, via Quid, June 2015. These figures exclude M&A activity in the AI space.

• Third,whileAIdeploymentanduseisnotwithoutrisk,thisriskismanageableandthere are demonstrable economic and non-economic benefits associated with AI. Thoughtful publicpolicydemandsacarefulweighingofthesebenefitsagainstperceivedriskssothat thebenefitscanbefullyrealized.

1. ExistingPolicyFrameworksCanAdapttoArtificialIntelligence

Beforedelving intopolicyspecifics, the IAsubmits that it isadvisable forpolicymakers todrawparametersaroundwhatartificialintelligenceisandisnotsincethisisanopendebatethatmaytriggerfearfulpolicyresponseswheretheyarenotneeded.

For Internet Association members, AI refers to the engineering discipline that aims to createintelligent machines that work and react like humans.3Differently stated, AI is computationalsystemsanddevicesmade toact inamanner that canbedeemed intelligent.Machine learningrefers to an aspect of artificial intelligence that focuses on making predictions from a set ofexamples. Related to this, robotics are autonomous mechanical systems that sometimesincorporatetechniquesofartificialintelligenceormachinelearning.

Artificial intelligence isnot a science fiction technology.AIhasbeenaround forseveraldecadesandhasdevelopedatasteadybutrelativelyslowpacecomparedtoothertechnologiesfromwhichit can be benchmarked, including broadband internet and mobile telephony. To illustratethispoint, in 1966 the Register of Copyrights identified computer authorship as one of thethree“major problems” facing the Copyright Office. In fact, the register flagged this as a“crucialquestion”inhisannualreportthatyear4andyetitremainsanopenquestiontothisday.This50-yearoldanecdotesuggests thatknee jerkpolicyreactions toAIareneitherneedednoradvisable.

Against this backdrop, the Internet Association submits that although AI may raise someinterestingpublicpolicyquestions,theyarenotnecessarilynewandexistingpolicyframeworkscanadapttoitinanorderlyandtimelyway.Furthermore,U.S.policymakershaveaproventrackrecordinthisregard.Aleadingexampleofthisflexibilityinpracticeistheso-called‘commonlawofprivacy’developedbytheFederalTradeCommissionoverthepasttwentyyears.TheFTChasuseditsframeworkcommonlawstatutetodevelopcaselawandpolicyguidancetoindustryintheareas of privacy and data security. As new technologies have emerged, the FTC’s common lawapproach has been applied to them in a relatively seamless way. These diverse technologiesincludemobilepayments,theInternetofThings,andRFID.ThereislittlereasontothinkwhythesameframeworkcouldnotalsosuccessfullybeadaptedtoAI.

2. Government’sRoleinFosteringArtificialIntelligence

TheU.S.governmentcanandwillplayanimportantroleinfosteringAItechnologybothathomeandabroad.This role rangesbetweenpracticalpolicies suchas support forSTEMeducationathomeandengaginginsophisticatedeconomicdiplomacyabroad.

3 Miller,Stephen.“ComputerScientistCoined‘ArtificialIntelligence’,WSJ26.Oct2011.4REGISTEROFCOPYRIGHTS,SIXTY-EIGHTHANNUALREP.OFTHEREGISTEROFCOPYRIGHTS(1966) .

TheInternetAssociationfullyacknowledgesthatgovernmentplaysanimportantroleinresearchanddevelopmentofnewtechnologies.Afterall,theinternetitselfwouldnotexisthadDARPAandtheNSFnotinvestedintheirearlystageresearchdecadesago.Similarly,thegovernmentcanalsoplayapivotalroleinAIresearchanddevelopment.

Akeyvariable inthisresearchfunction, forboththepublicandprivatesectors,willbeensuringthatpersonnelengaginginitarediverseandcomefromavarietyofsocio-economicbackgrounds.Unfortunately, these personnel do not currently exist due to a lack of investment in STEMeducation. Currently, fewer than one in five high school students has ever taken a computerscience course—a figure that has fallen by 24 percent over the past two decades5—and only 7percentofhighschoolsoffer theAdvancedPlacementcourse inComputerScience.6Governmentcan play an important role in remedying this STEM education diversity gap by promotingexpandedaccesstocomputerscienceeducationthroughprogramssuchtheComputerScienceforAll Initiative for K-12 students and the Tech Inclusion Initiative. These programswill create adiversetalentpipelineforallresearch,includingintheAIfield.

Withingovernment itself,AIdeploymentcanplaya role instrengtheninge-government,makinggovernmentmoreefficientand responsive to citizens.The InternetAssociationsupportseffortsliketheU.S.DigitalServicethatseektobuildtechnicalcapacitywithingovernmentacrossagencies,includingincreaseddeploymentofmachinelearningwhereapplicable.

Finally, government continues to play a significant role in promoting and protecting U.S.technology interests abroad. Like the internet, AI is the product of international collaborativeresearchand it is important that thisapproach is followedasAI technologies leave theresearchlabandentertheglobaleconomy.Internetgovernanceworksbestwheninternationalgovernanceforumsaremultistakeholder innature.Thesame logic shouldapply toAIgovernance. It is alsoimportantthattheU.S.leverageitsdiplomaticnetworkinsupportofpro-innovationlegalregimesoverseasinfieldssuchasstandardsettingandcopyrightastheyrelatetoAI.AprototypeforthisrolealreadyexistsintherecentlyannounceddigitalattachéprogramcreatedattheInternationalTradeAdministrationwithintheDepartmentofCommerce.

3. AI’sBenefitsandRisksRequireCarefulBalancing

WhileAIdeploymentanduseisnotwithoutrisk,therearedemonstrablebenefits–botheconomicandnon-economic - associatedwith it.Thoughtfulpublicpolicy in this spacedemandsa carefulweighingofthesebenefitsagainstperceivedriskssothatthebenefitscanbefullyrealized.

The economic impact from AI deployment will be both direct GDP growth from industriesdevelopingandsellingAItechnologiesandalsoindirectGDPgrowthasotherindustriesadoptAItechnologies and realize the productivity gains associatedwith it. In 2016, the Analysis Groupestimatesthiseconomicimpacttorangebetween$1.49trillionand$2.95trilliongloballyoverthe

5 “TheNation’sReportCard,”Washington,D.C.:TheNationalCenterforEducationStatistics,InstituteofEducationSciences,U.S.DepartmentofEducation,2011.6NationalCenterforEducationStatistics,“Table91:Numberofpublicschooldistrictsandpublicandprivateelementaryandsecondaryschools:Selectedyears,1869-70through2009-10”(2011) .

nexttenyears.7EventheconservativeendofthisrangewouldsuggestthatAI’seconomicbenefitsarelikelytobesignificant.AlsoincludedinAI’seconomicbenefitsistheconsumersurplusthatthe technology creates as it lowers search and transaction costs for consumers throughapplicationssuchaseBay’spersonalizedshoppingexperience.AsexplainedbyeBay’sCEODevinWenig in a recent blog, by usingAI technology eBay isworking “to help improve shipping anddeliverytimes,trust,pricing,andmore”foreBay’scustomers.8

Beyond this direct economic impact headline, it is important also to pause to consider thebeneficialusesthatAIwillbeputtobeforeweighingitsrisks.Beneficialpotentialapplicationsformachine learning that automates analyticalmodeling include detectingmolecular structures invast amounts of biological data that is predictive of certain diseases and protecting againstconsumerfraud.Applicationsformachinevisionalreadyincludeprovidingobjectdescriptionsforthe blind and car safety systems that detect pedestrians and cyclists. These applications createhealthandsafetybenefitsforsocietyoverall.

As with these benefits, analysis of the risk associated with AI should be grounded in rigorousresearchthatissupportedbyempiricismtothefullestextentpossible.Oneriskalreadyunderthespotlight is the extent towhichAImachine learningmayproduce suboptimal resultswhen thedata upon which it based its analysis is incomplete and therefore skewed againstunderrepresenteddemographics.TheFTCflaggedtheseconcernsintheconsumerarenawhenitcounseled in its Big Data report to consider “whether data sets aremissing information aboutcertain populations, and take steps to address issues of underrepresentation andoverrepresentation.”9 Related to this, the agency counseled companies “to consider whetherbiasesarebeingincorporatedatboththecollectionandanalyticsstagesofbigdata’slifecycle.”10

InorderforalldemographicstorealizethebenefitsofAI(andforpossibleregulatoryscrutinytobeavoided) thesedatagapswillneedtobeaddressed.TheGatesFoundationrecentlyannouncedan investmentof$80million11tohelp foster increaseddatacollection forwomen indevelopingcountries, a demographic that is sorely underrepresented. These datawill be used to improvehealthandeconomicopportunityoutcomesforgirlsandwomensince,accordingtoMelindaGates,“closing thegendergapmeans closing thedatagap.”Government couldalsoplaya role in thiscontext by overseeing the release of robust and high quality datasets to responsible actorsengagedinAIresearch.

7 GlobalEconomicImpactsAssociatedwithArtificialIntelligence,at2,AnalysisGroup,Inc.(2016) .8ArtificialIntelligence:ApplyingDeepSciencetoEverydayCommerce,DevinWenig,eBayPresident&CEO,May25,2016,https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/artificial-intelligence-applying-deep-science-to-everyday-commerce/9BigData,AToolforInclusionorExclusion,UnderstandingtheIssues,FederalTradeCommission,January2016.10Id.11 ToClosetheGenderGap,WeHavetoClosetheDataGap,MelindaGatesviaMedium,May17,2016.https://medium.com/@melindagates/to-close-the-gender-gap-we-have-to-close-the-data-gap-e6a36a242657#.7j1dimwnw

ConclusionTheInternetAssociationthankstheWhiteHouseOSTPforshiningatimelyspotlightonAIanditsfutureinoursociety.OurmembersshareyourinterestandlookforwardtocontinueddialogwithOSTPasAItechnologymovesforwardandrealizesitslong-promisedpotential.Respectfullysubmitted,

___________________ MichaelBeckermanPresident&CEOTheInternetAssociation