Perspective
On May 15, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced the AI Whistleblower Protection Act (AIWPA), a bipartisan bill to protect individuals who disclose information regarding a potential artificial intelligence security vulnerability or violation. Under the bill, these whistleblowers can be current or former employees and independent contractors, and like other measures protecting against whistleblower retaliation, it does not require that they prove laws have been broken to be covered, only that they act in good faith in flagging a possible violation.
This bill comes at a critical moment in AI safety at which we must cement transparency and accountability standards in the public interest via regulation. With a wave of deregulation potentially coming at the state and federal level, whistleblower protections may well become even more crucial in holding the AI industry accountable.
Recent developments in Washington underscore this expected trend. On May 8, tech industry leaders urged legislators to employ “light touch” regulation in a Senate hearing on the global AI race, and on May 22, the House passed a budget reconciliation bill containing a provision that would bar states’ ability to regulate AI with a moratorium.
This laissez-faire regulatory environment is likely to further entrench law enforcement’s reliance on whistleblower disclosures. When an industry is under-regulated, authorities need the information provided by employees to properly...
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