The recent flooding of social media feeds with AI-generated "portraits" derived from databases of artists' work has renewed conversation over data ownership and the potential power AI has to supplant livelihoods in the future. The 22 million individuals and counting who have already handed over their images to the Lensa application might be fine to receive the myriad of AI-illustrated images in exchange for their data. But the fundamental rights, principles, and freedoms users are giving up during this exchange remains largely unchecked. In Web3 technology circles, much promises have been made of decentralized technologies to open up the possibility for individual ownership and monetization of data, returning power to "creators." This reflects the political ethos held by Blockchain proponents like Etherum co-founder Joe Lubin, who ostensibly seek to supplant the existing power structures of finance through "permissionless" consensus-based transaction data structures.

Meanwhile Michael Veale, a lecturer in digital rights and regulation at University College London, highlighted a clause that will force organisations to disclose when they are using deepfakes, a particularly controversial use of AI to create fake humans or to manipulate images and videos of real people.

This week IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft all said they would halt sales of facial recognition to US police and called on Congress to impose rules on use of the technology. A police reform bill introduced in the House of Representatives Monday by prominent Democrats in response to weeks of protest over racist policing practices would do just that. But some privacy advocates say its restrictions aren't tight enough and could legitimize the way police use facial recognition today. "We're concerned," says Neema Guliani, senior legislative counsel for the ACLU in Washington, DC, citing evidence that many facial recognition algorithms are less accurate on darker skin tones. She urges a federal ban on facial recognition "unless and until it can be used in a way that respects civil liberties;" Guliani says it's not clear that that is possible.

U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Brian Schatz (D-HI) today proposed the Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act, legislation to pump $2.2 billion into federal research and development and create a national AI strategy. The $2.2 billion would be doled out over the course of the next 5 years to federal agencies like the Department of Energy, Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and others. The legislation would establish a National AI Coordination Office to lead federal AI efforts, require the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the effects of AI on society and education, and allocate $40 million a year to NIST to create AI evaluation standards. The bill would also include $20 million a year from 2020-2024 to fund the creation of 5 multidisciplinary AI research centers, with one focused solely on K-12 education. Plans to open national AI centers in the bill closely resembles plans from the 20-year AI research program proposed by the Computing Consortium.