Not surprisingly, technology regulation is a serious issue within the 2024 US presidential election campaign.
Over the last decade, advanced technologies, from social media algorithms to large artificial intelligence language models, have had a profound impact on society. These changes, which spanned the Trump and Biden-Harris administrations, led to calls for the federal government to control the technologies and the powerful firms that use them.
As an information systems and AI researcher, I examined each candidates' records on technology regulation. Here are the essential differences.
Algorithmic damage
As artificial intelligence has change into widespread, governments world wide are struggling to control various points of the technology. The candidates offer different visions for U.S. AI policy. One area where there may be major disparity is the detection and treatment of algorithmic harm attributable to the widespread use of AI technology.
AI is impacting your life in ways you may miss. Biased algorithms for lending and hiring decisions could ultimately reinforce a vicious cycle of discrimination. For example, a student who cannot take out loans for faculty would have less of a likelihood of getting the education she must get out of poverty.
At the AI ​​Safety Summit within the UK in November 2023, Harris spoke concerning the promise of AI, but in addition the hazards of algorithmic bias, deepfakes and wrongful arrests. Biden signed an executive order on AI on October 30, 2023, stating that recognized AI systems may pose unacceptable risks of harm to civil and human rights and individual well-being. In parallel, federal agencies akin to the Federal Trade Commission have taken enforcement actions to guard against algorithmic harm.
President Joe Biden signs an executive order addressing the risks of artificial intelligence on October 30, 2023, with Vice President Kamala Harris at his side.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
In contrast, the Trump administration has made no public statement on mitigating algorithmic harm. Trump has said he desires to repeal President Biden's AI regulation. However, in recent interviews, Trump has pointed to the hazards posed by technologies like deepfakes and the challenges that AI systems pose to security, suggesting he is prepared to handle the growing risks of AI to take care of.
Technological standards
The Trump Administration signed the American AI Initiative Executive Order on February 11, 2019. The regulation committed to doubling investment in AI research and established the primary national AI research institutes. The order also included a plan for AI technical standards and established guidelines for the federal government's use of AI. Trump also signed an executive order on December 3, 2020 promoting using trustworthy AI within the federal government.
The Biden-Harris administration has tried to go further. Harris convened the heads of Google, Microsoft and other technology firms on the White House on May 4, 2023 to make a series of voluntary commitments to guard individual rights. The Biden administration's executive order includes a vital initiative to check the vulnerability of very large, general-purpose AI models trained on massive amounts of information. The goal is to discover the risks hackers pose to those models, including those supporting OpenAI's popular ChatGPT and DALL-E.
Donald Trump departs Washington DC on February 11, 2019, shortly after signing an executive order on artificial intelligence, which also includes setting technical standards.
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
Antitrust law
Antitrust enforcement – ​​restricting or conditioning mergers and acquisitions – is one other way the federal government can regulate the tech industry.
The Trump administration's antitrust dossier includes an try and block AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner. The merger was ultimately approved by a federal judge after the FTC filed a lawsuit under the Trump administration to dam the deal. The Trump administration also filed an antitrust case against Google that focused on the corporate's dominance in Internet search.
Biden signed an executive order on July 9, 2021 to implement antitrust laws arising from the anticompetitive effects of dominant web platforms. The order also targeted acquisition of emerging competitors, data aggregation, unfair competition in attention markets and user surveillance. The Biden-Harris administration has filed antitrust cases against Apple and Google.
The Biden-Harris administration's 2023 merger guidelines outlined rules to find out when mergers might be considered anticompetitive. While each governments have filed antitrust lawsuits, the Biden administration's antitrust push appears to be stronger by way of its impact on potentially restructuring and even orchestrating a breakup of dominant firms like Google.
Cryptocurrency
The candidates take different approaches to cryptocurrency regulation. Towards the top of his term, Trump tweeted in support of cryptocurrency regulation. Also late in Trump's term, the federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed regulations that might have required financial firms to record the identity of all cryptocurrency wallets to which a user has sent funds. The regulations haven’t been issued.
Since then, Trump has modified his position on cryptocurrencies. He criticized existing US laws and called for the United States to change into a Bitcoin superpower. The Trump campaign is the primary presidential campaign to just accept cryptocurrency payments.
In contrast, the Biden-Harris administration has imposed regulatory restrictions on cryptocurrencies on the Securities and Exchange Commission, resulting in a series of enforcement actions. The White House vetoed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the twenty first Century Act, which aimed to make clear cryptocurrency accounting, a bill favored by the cryptocurrency industry.
Data protection
Biden's AI executive order calls on Congress to pass privacy laws but doesn’t provide a legal framework to accomplish that. The Trump White House's American AI Initiative executive order makes only a broad mention of privacy and calls for AI technologies to uphold “civil liberties, privacy and American values.” The order didn’t mention how existing data protection could be enforced.
In the United States, several states have attempted to pass laws addressing privacy issues. There is currently a patchwork of nationwide initiatives and a scarcity of comprehensive data protection laws on the federal level.
The lack of federal privacy protections is a stark reminder that while candidates address a few of the challenges posed by the event of AI and technology basically, there remains to be much work to be done to control the technology in the general public interest.
Overall, the Biden administration's antitrust and technology regulation efforts appear largely focused on reining in tech firms and protecting consumers. In addition, monopoly protection is being redesigned for the twenty first century. This appears to be the foremost difference between the 2 governments.
