On Tuesday morning, a cohort of Democratic lawmakers reintroduced the Artificial Intelligence Civil Rights Act, a bill that would establish protections for individual civil rights when someone’s personal data is processed by algorithms for a diverse range of consequential life decisions.
Spearheaded by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., along with Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Reps. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the AI Civil Right Act’s comes as Markey asserts tech companies are lobbying to include a recently defeated moratorium on AI regulations at the state level in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act.
The threat of states being unable to regulate how AI systems are leveraged in different, consequential fields sparked the lawmakers to reintroduce the AI Civil Right Act, which would offer protections for people when AI is used in decision areas like employment, educational criteria, housing approval, health care, financial services and more.
“Companies have been using AI-powered algorithms for years to make major decisions in Americans’ lives too often,” Markey said during a press conference on Tuesday. “This bill rests on three pillars: equity, accountability and choice.”
In addition to overtly banning algorithmic discrimination — defined broadly as when an algorithm’s decision is unfair to a given user based on a class of protected traits, like race, gender and disability status — the bill stipulates that algorithm developers must “take reasonable measures” in preventing algorithm-enabled harm, including conducting independent software audits and pre-deployment assessments, displaying accurate advertising and consulting relevant community stakeholders that may be impacted by algorithm-based decision-making.
“Americans have the same civil liberties online as they do wherever else they live their lives,” Clarke said during the press conference.
The bill also includes the option to offer the public a choice as to whether an algorithm or a human is the final arbiter in a given decision.
“This blueprint is what American leadership in AI looks like; not just technological leadership, but moral leadership as well,” Markey said. “In the global race with China to lead on artificial intelligence, we cannot abandon the principles of America in a reckless pursuit of technological superiority.”
The bill would task the Federal Trade Commission with enforcing its oversight provisions.
Initially introduced in September 2024, the previous iteration of the Artificial Intelligence Civil Rights Act didn’t make it out of committee before that session of Congress ended.
Markey has long pushed for oversight into how AI technologies are leveraged in critical life decision-making, introducing the Eliminating Bias in Algorithmic Systems Act in December 2023, that would also instill preventative measures to mitigate algorithmic discrimination.
