ITI to NTIA: Open Model Weights Can Advance U.S. AI Innovation Across Diverse Sectors
WASHINGTON – Today, global tech trade association ITI responded to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) request for information (opens in a new tab) related to NTIA’s assignments in U.S. President Biden’s Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (opens in a new tab).
In its comments (opens in a new tab), ITI recommends that NTIA:
- Adopt a risk-based approach for policy recommendations, as not all open foundation models present the same level of risk;
- In defining openness, recognize that there is a gradient of openness and that access to different component parts of an open foundation model may change the risk and benefit calculus;
- Acknowledge that risk management is a shared responsibility across the AI value chain; and
- Engage in discussions with key international allies and partners on the risks and benefits of open foundation models, collaborating to both foster innovation and address risk.
“There is growing evidence about the benefits of open foundation models. This includes enabling competition, catalyzing innovation, and ensuring transparency. Additionally, widely available model weights can help to democratize access and use of AI systems, allowing a greater number of users to contribute to AI development processes,” ITI wrote in its comments.
“Widely available model weights are able to promote innovation allowing actors across the AI value chain to create new economic opportunities in diverse fields such as marketing, communications, medicine, education and employee training. Developers and deployers can customize their models depending on the specific use case,” ITI continued in its comments.
Read ITI’s full comments here. (opens in a new tab)
ITI has reiterated that safe and responsible AI development and deployment must be grounded in trust, transparency, ethics, and collaboration among government, industry, civil society, and academia. INCITS (opens in a new tab), an affiliate division of ITI, serves as the U.S. technical advisory group to the international standards body that recently published a standard (opens in a new tab) for managing the risks and opportunities of AI. This management system standard supports improved quality, security, traceability, transparency, and reliability of AI applications.
In January, ITI unveiled a new guide for global policymakers (opens in a new tab), Authenticating AI-Generated Content: Exploring Risks, Techniques & Policy Recommendations, aiming to address the pressing need to authenticate AI-generated content, including chatbots, image, and audio generators.