AI and Regulation

AI has applications in many products， such as cars and aircraft， which are subject to regulation designed to protect the public from harm and ensure fairness in economic competition. The general consensus of the RFI commenters was that broad regulation of AI research or practice would be inadvisable at this time. Instead， commenters said that the goals and structure of existing regulations were sufficient， and commenters called for existing regulation to be adapted as necessary to account for the effects of AI. Effective regulation of technologies such as AI requires agencies to have in-house technical expertise to help guide regulatory decision-making. The need for senior-level expert participation exists at regulating departments and agencies， and at all stages of the regulatory process. A range of personnel assignment and exchange models can be used to develop a Federal workforce with more diverse perspectives on the current state of technological development.

The Promise of Autonomy

The application of AI to vehicles and aircraft has captured the public imagination. Todays new cars have AI-based driver assist features like self-parking and advanced cruise controls that keep a car in its lane and adjust speed based on surrounding vehicles. The consensus of experts is that automated surface vehicle technology will eventually be safer than human drivers and may someday prevent most of the tens of thousands of fatalities that occur annually on the roads. Automated vehicles also offer the possibility of greater mobility for the elderly and Americans with disabilities who may not be able to drive.

Ensuring Safety

Realizing the potential benefits of these promising technologies requires that government take steps to ensure the safety of the airspace and roads， while continuing to foster a culture of innovation and growth.

Applying techniques of AI in such safety-critical environments raises several challenges. First among these is the need to translate human responsibilities while driving or flying into software. It may seem straightforward to simply obey all traffic laws， but a skilled driver may cross a double-yellow road boundary to avoid an accident or move past a double-parked vehicle. Though such situations may be rare， they cannot be ignored—simple arithmetic dictates that in order for failures to occur at least as infrequently as they do with human drivers， a system must handle many such rare cases without failure. For systems that rely on machine learning， the need to get rare cases right has implications for system design and testing. Machine can be more confident that a case will be handled correctly if a similar case is in the training set. The challenge is how to develop a data set that includes enough of the rare cases that contribute to the risk of an accident.

Adapting Current Regulations

While the regulatory approaches for the Nations airspace and highways differ， the approaches to integrating autonomous vehicles and aircraft share a common goal： both the FAA and NHTSA are working to establish nimble and flexible frameworks that ensure safety while encouraging innovation.

New approaches to airspace management may also include AI-based enhancement of the air traffic control system. With respect to surface transportation， the most significant step currently underway to establish a common framework is the Federal Automated Vehicles Policy that the Administration released on September 20， 2016. The policy had several parts：

guidance for manufacturers， developers， and other organizations outlining a 15 point “Safety Assessment” for the safe design， development， testing， and deployment of highly automated vehicles；

a model state policy， which clearly distinguishes Federal and State responsibilities and recommends policy areas for states to consider， with a goal of generating a consistent national framework for the testing and operation of automated vehicles， while leaving room for experimentation by states；

an analysis of current regulatory tools that NHTSA can use to aid the safe development of automated vehicles， such as interpreting current rules to allow for appropriate flexibility in design， providing limited exemptions to allow for testing of nontraditional vehicle designs， and ensuring that unsafe automated vehicles are removed from the road；

a discussion of new tools and authorities that the agency could consider seeking in the future to aid the safe and efficient deployment of new lifesaving technologies and ensure that technologies deployed on the road are safe.