Dear Dr. Eric Lander and Dr. Alondra Nelson,

Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments on the community impacts of artificial intelligence. I strongly support the creation of an AI Bill of Rights as a first step towards protecting people against the harms of many AI tools. Beyond the development of this Bill of Rights, I urge the White House to ensure federal agencies, local and state governments, and private companies abandon–or never use–AI tools like biometric surveillance that violate our rights and deepen structural racism.

Systemic racism is often reflected in the outcome that an AI system is meant to predict, such as in criminal legal system uses, or in housing, employment and credit. For example, in February 2020, a report issued by the Student Borrower Protection Center found that a fintech lender abused borrower’s educational and current employment data in its model, ultimately charging higher interest rates and loan origination fees for borrowers who attended Howard University, a historically Black university, or New Mexico State University, which principally enrolls Latinx students, when compared with a similarly situated New York University graduate [1].

Meanwhile, biometric surveillance and data collection are spreading rapidly in both private and public realms, creating unprecedented threats to privacy and safety. If we don’t put an end to the proliferation of this tech, individual anonymity in public spaces will soon be a relic of the past. Instances of irreversible identity theft (i.e. theft of biometric data) will multiply, and systems of mass incarceration and violent policing threatening the lives of Black and brown people nationwide will continue to be strengthened. Civil rights campaigns to ban the use of facial recognition by law enforcement, airlines, retail stores, and other actors call attention to these dangers and more [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].

Like nuclear or biological weapons, biometric surveillance poses a threat to human society and basic liberties that far outweighs any potential benefits. The only appropriate response to such destructive tech – and any other inherently discriminatory and invasive AI tool – is an all out ban [8]. I urge the White House to adopt such a position, and throughout the process of developing an AI Bill of Rights, to center those most harmed by these technologies.

Thank you.

References:

https://protectborrowers.org/educational-redlining-2/
https://www.banfacialrecognition.com/
https://airlineprivacy.com/
https://www.banfacialrecognition.com/stores/
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-corporations-from-mapping-kids-bodies-for-profit/?source=web-endchildsurveillance_an_stop-corps-mapping-kids-bodies_0521&
https://www.amazondoesntrock.com
https://www.baneproctoring.com/
https://fightfortheftr.medium.com/why-we-absolutely-must-ban-private-use-of-facial-recognition-98094736933