The US and United Kingdom (UK) will collaborate on a series of innovation prize challenges to catalyze research and advancements related to privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs). These technologies give the user greater control over the data being processed to protect personal information and intellectual property. The aim of the prize challenge is to bring together the top minds in both countries to encourage and facilitate the adoption of PETs. As a large problem area and growing concern among scientists, both countries heavily invested in privacy-enhancing technologies over the past decade. PETs are already used to address a number of societal problems from Covid-19 contact tracing to protecting online banking transactions. This […]

The White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) is launching a series of listening sessions and events to involve the American public in the development of a Bill of Rights for an Automated Society. With the growing influence of data-driven technologies, the series is part of a national endeavor to ensure that emerging socio-technical systems are safe and just. In addition to the RFI on current or planned uses of AI-enabled biometric technologies, OSTP will hold two public listening sessions and six public discussion forums seeking input from key stakeholders. Listening Sessions on Public and Private Sector Uses of AI-Enabled Biometrics Listening Session One: Thursday, November  18th, 4:00 p.m. […]

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) put out a Request for Information (RFI) on uses of biometric technologies in the public and private sector. Concerns are growing with the increasing number of applications and domains using biometric information to determine identification or inference of emotion, disposition, character, or intent. As a result, OSTP is requesting input from interested parties past deployments, proposals, pilots, or trials, and current use of biometric technologies for the aforementioned purposes. In this case, a “biometric technology” is broadly referred to as a system that uses biometric information for the purpose of recognition or inference. Community responses will be used to understand the current landscape of […]

The following is a recent message to the community from Lynne E. Parker, Director of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office and Assistant Director of Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Dear Colleagues, I’m happy to report that OSTP released a blueprint for a National Strategic Computing Reserve.  This concept is modeled after the highly successful COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, which advanced COVID-19 research during the early days of the pandemic. Report direct link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/National-Strategic-Computing-Reserve-Blueprint-Oct2021.pdf NSTC site which includes the new report: https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/nstc/ OSTP tweet link: https://twitter.com/WHOSTP/status/1445440967264321536 Feel free to share the news with your interested colleagues. Best regards, Lynne

In July, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation released a Request For Information (RFI) to gather public input on the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) implementation plan. The deadline has been extended, to October 1st, to hopefully elicit more diverse responses. “Given that we want to hear from as many folks as possible — we’d really like a broad and diverse set of perspectives among the responses — we felt it best to extend the RFI response date by a month,” Erwin Gianchandani, who co-chairs the task force as NSF’s representative, told FedScoop in an article. “We believe that timeline will maximize responses while still allowing us to […]

As part of efforts to improve scientific integrity, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Scientific Integrity Task Force are organizing a series of three virtual listening sessions on July 28-30 to hear from individual members of the public who produce, communicate, and use scientific and technical information. To help the Task Force understand how to strengthen the integrity of Federal Science, please sign-up to make a brief oral comment sharing your thoughts. Each of three virtual listening sessions will be organized around a particular theme as described below: Session 1: Communications – Effective policies and practices to improve the communication of scientific and technological information, […]