From Principles to Practice

The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights is a set of five principles and associated practices to help guide the design, use, and deployment of automated systems to protect the rights of the American public in the age of artificial intelligence. This technical companion considers each principle in the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and provides examples and concrete steps for communities, industry, governments, and others to take in order to build these protections into policy, practice, or the technological design process.

Taken together, the technical protections and practices laid out in the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights can help guard the American public against many of the potential and actual harms identified by researchers, technologists, advocates, journalists, policymakers, and communities in the United States and around the world. This technical companion is intended to be used as a reference by people across many circumstances – anyone impacted by automated systems, and anyone developing, designing, deploying, evaluating, or making policy to govern the use of an automated system.

Each principle is accompanied by three supplemental sections:

1. Why this principle is important: This section provides a brief summary of the problems that the principle seeks to address and protect against, including illustrative examples.

2. What should be expected of automated systems:

• The expectations for automated systems are meant to serve as a blueprint for the development of additional technical standards and practices that should be tailored for particular sectors and contexts.

• This section outlines practical steps that can be implemented to realize the vision of the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. The expectations laid out often mirror existing practices for technology development, including pre-deployment testing, ongoing monitoring, and governance structures for automated systems, but also go further to address unmet needs for change and offer concrete directions for how those changes can be made.  
• Expectations about reporting are intended for the entity developing or using the automated system. The resulting reports can be provided to the public, regulators, auditors, industry standards groups, or others engaged in independent review, and should be made public as much as possible consistent with law, regulation, and policy, and noting that intellectual property, law enforcement, or national security considerations may prevent public release. Where public reports are not possible, the information should be provided to oversight bodies and privacy, civil liberties, or other ethics officers charged with safeguarding individuals’ rights. These reporting expectations are important for transparency, so the American people can have confidence that their rights, opportunities, and access as well as their expectations about technologies are respected.
  
  3. How these principles can move into practice: This section provides real-life examples of how these guiding principles can become reality, through laws, policies, and practices. It describes practical technical and sociotechnical approaches to protecting rights, opportunities, and access.

The examples provided are not critiques or endorsements, but rather are offered as illustrative cases to help provide a concrete vision for actualizing the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. Effectively implementing these processes require the cooperation of and collaboration among industry, civil society, researchers, policymakers, technologists, and the public.