Business Roundtable Launches Responsible AI Initiative

Releases Roadmap and Policy Recommendations for Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence

Washington – Business Roundtable, representing over 230 CEOs across industries, today launched the “Roadmap for Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI),” an initiative to guide the responsible development and use of AI. The Roadmap provides a set of principles to guide businesses as they implement Responsible AI and reflects the perspectives and real-world experiences of companies from every sector of the economy, including AI developers, deployers and end users. 

Alongside the Roadmap, Business Roundtable also released a set of policy recommendations to encourage AI governance, oversight and regulation that build public trust in AI while enabling innovation and promoting continued U.S. leadership.

“There is now true momentum among companies to realize the promise and benefits of AI, and this Roadmap provides them with a practical guide for developing and deploying AI responsibly with safety, effectiveness and trust,” said Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture and immediate past Chair of the Business Roundtable Technology Committee, who led CEOs in the development of the organization’s Responsible AI Initiative. “This is a defining moment for CEO leadership across industries in sharing responsibility, promoting public-private partnership and driving innovation for the benefit of all.”

The core principles for businesses to consider include: innovate with and for diversity; mitigate the potential for unfair bias; design for and implement transparency, explainability and interpretability; invest in a future-ready AI workforce; adapt existing governance structures to account for AI; and operationalize AI governance throughout the whole organization, among others.

“Artificial Intelligence powers many technological advancements today and holds tremendous promise for our future. As these applications are increasingly developed and deployed at scale, societal trust in the use of AI is critical,” said Alfred F. Kelly, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Visa and Chair of the Business Roundtable Technology Committee. “Leaders in business and government must work together to earn and maintain trust in AI by demonstrating responsible AI deployment and oversight. Only then can we realize its full beneficial potential for society.”

Business Roundtable is calling on the Biden Administration, Congress and regulators to establish practices, rules and guidelines consistent with 10 policy recommendations. These recommendations range from adopting regulatory approaches to AI that are contextual, proportional and use-case specific and embedding AI rules and guidelines into existing frameworks, as appropriate, to engaging on global AI standards and guidelines and investing in AI education and proficiency at all levels. Exercising the principles and policy recommendations, the private and public sectors together will advance U.S. global leadership in the development, deployment and governance of Responsible AI.

“Business Roundtable CEOs are committed to building trust in AI,” said Business Roundtable CEO Joshua Bolten. “By identifying these principles as a guide, leaders of America’s largest companies are working toward responsible AI deployment for the benefit of the U.S. economy and our everyday lives.”

In 2019, Business Roundtable released “Innovation Nation,” a national policy agenda that detailed the importance of AI to the U.S. economy and global innovation leadership. The report also highlighted the need for the public and private sectors to promote trust in AI and build safety and security into AI technologies.

For more, visit www.brt.org/ai.