The empty national AI policy framework: Who is in charge of those in charge?

The Trump White House released a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence on March 20. The document outlines goals such as protecting children, promoting innovation and ensuring American leadership. The framework sidesteps questions of accountability by delegating AI policy to Congress through a series of recommendations. It offers no discussion of the responsibility of those whose decisions created the issues it seeks to address. Former Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler and former assistant attorney general Bill Baer said the plan mistakes symptoms for causes. They noted that the concentration of AI decisionmaking in a handful of companies poses a more immediate risk than hypothetical doomsday scenarios. Wheeler and Baer argued that AI policy must address power and competition through four principles of accountability, access, agency and action. They concluded that the Trump framework comes up empty because it focuses on outcomes while ignoring who controls them.