During an interview at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore last Wednesday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo made the case for setting artificial intelligence (AI) standards with like-minded allies.

She began by emphasizing the importance of the field, noting that "AI will change fundamentally, logistics, biotechnology, health care, every single aspect of our economy." She then talked about collaborating with allies, saying: "we absolutely have to make sure that like minded partners, who share values around anti-discrimination, privacy, human rights are together writing the rules of the road." She also said that she "had a great discussion yesterday with the tech minister in Singapore on exactly this topic, which is, we share the same values," and argued that "we should be writing the rules of the road, we should be setting forth the tech standards and governance models for the appropriate and safe use of AI." Finally, she emphasized that "there can be no room for the use of AI for surveillance or anything that purveys discrimination or that kind of gets into ethical questions."

None of her comments explicitly mentioned China, but they are clearly directed at specific Chinese government practices and behavior. Whether the United States can coordinate an alternative set of global governance principles among a group of countries who themselves don't always agree on values, and even disagree internally in domestic political debates, remains to be seen. For example, within the United States right now, there are heated debates over what type of government regulation is needed to protect user privacy and regulate speech, and AI can play a part in each one. Until these internal disagreements are resolved, it may be difficult to conclude international agreements.

The full exchange in the interview is below.

Q:

You mentioned international standards, and again, just talking to Henry Kissinger earlier, the all important issue of artificial intelligence, which also goes into your brief on competitiveness, you know, this is the industry of the future, who is going to write the rules of artificial intelligence? And what do you see as America's role in that?

Raimondo:

So I think this is an enormously important topic. If you think about the internet, which of course was incredibly, you know, powerful, transformative, disruptive, it primarily affected advertising, and the advertising market, and e-commerce, you know, retail. Two relatively small pieces of our economy. Now you look at AI. AI will change fundamentally, logistics, biotechnology, health care, every single aspect of our economy. So I think that it's really impossible to overestimate the, you know, what is coming, in terms of disruption, transformation, change and progress with respect to AI. Which means, first of all, we have to get it right in how we regulate. But secondly, we absolutely have to make sure that like minded partners, who share values around anti-discrimination, privacy, human rights are together writing the rules of the road. So for example, that's part of what I'm talking about. When I sit down with Malaysia, when I sit down with Singapore, I had a great discussion yesterday with the tech minister in Singapore on exactly this topic, which is, we share the same values. So we should be writing the rules of the road, we should be setting forth the tech standards and governance models for the appropriate and safe use of AI.

Q:

And there particular bits within that, are there sort of mini battlefields within that you're going to set standards in AI that you really want to focus on.

Raimondo:

So I would say this. I think this has to be very use case specific. So AI as applied to biotechnology will be different from AI as applied to logistics. And certainly, there can be no room for the use of AI for surveillance or anything that purveys discrimination or that kind of gets into ethical questions. So it's enormously complex. I think the trick is use case specific, industry specific, flexibility. But this is an emerging field, we are in the, I don't know a ton about sports. So I should be careful. But you know, like second or third inning of AI. So we have to regulate and be careful for the dangers. But the potential is enormous. So we have to have some flexibility and sensible regulations that we develop in partnership with industry and stakeholders and our like minded allies, ...