EFF's Nathan Sheard urges enforcing existing laws and staffing OAA
Nathan Sheard of the Electronic Frontier Foundation says the incidents inspiring the hearing were preventable security failures. He urges the city to staff the OAA, ban government face recognition, require informed consent for ad targeting, and not to lock in incumbent AI companies through permission regimes.
Thank you so much.
Good evening, Speaker, Coach Jalalosa, members of the City Council.
My name is Nathan Sheard.
I am the Managing Director for AI.
advocacy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a Brooklyn resident.
EFF has worked for 35 years to ensure that people have the freedom to use technology to create, to innovate, and to communicate, and also to ensure that technology is not used to threaten people's privacy, security, and other essential freedoms.
We are optimistic about the ways that New Yorkers can use AI to empower and to be empowered, but we also urge you to take AI risks seriously.
The incidents that inspired this hearing were security failures that proven practices like sandboxing and monitoring likely could have prevented or at least contained.
AI agents reached systems they should not have had access to, and the controls meant to restrict them were absent or inadequate.
These risks can be mitigated, and so can the AI-related risks that are already impacting New Yorkers every day.
First, finish what you started.
As has already been noted here, the Office of Algorithmic Accountability was due in June.
I'm glad to hear that it is going to be staffed.
The Speaker's own AI standards can't take effect without it, so staff it and require its review before any agency deploys an autonomous AI system.
Second, listen to New Yorkers and protect their rights.
Today's AI harms come from cameras that take a face print that you can't replace.
And a price tag that knows your browsing history.
Ban government use of face recognition.
and require informed consent before anyone minds your chatbot history to engage in ad targeting or model training.
And don't let AI rules become speech rules.
Parodying powerful people, including the people in this room, is a long-standing New York tradition.
Third, don't lock in these incumbents.
Permission to operate regimes, bounty-style enforcement, and liability for what strangers do with a tool are costs that the biggest companies pay with pocket change.
Researchers, open-source developers, and New York startups, they can't.
So you'd build a moat around the very companies you're worried about.
Hold the person who causes the harm responsible, but put duties on whoever uses AI to perpetuate bias, and for the city's use, buy open, auditable tools.
As we've stated, last week, these same companies signed a voluntary pledge at the White House.
But promises are not laws.
Make sure that when a New Yorker is harmed by a wrongful decision or a biased decision, that they are required to disclose it.
Those answers should not be voluntary.
Thank you.