[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 236 (Tuesday, December 8, 2020)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 78939-78943]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-27065]




                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 236 / Tuesday, December 8, 2020 / 
Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

[[Page 78939]]

                Executive Order 13960 of December 3, 2020

                
Promoting the Use of Trustworthy Artificial 
                Intelligence in the Federal Government

                By the authority vested in me as President by the 
                Constitution and the laws of the United States of 
                America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

                Section 1. Purpose. Artificial intelligence (AI) 
                promises to drive the growth of the United States 
                economy and improve the quality of life of all 
                Americans. In alignment with Executive Order 13859 of 
                February 11, 2019 (Maintaining American Leadership in 
                Artificial Intelligence), executive departments and 
                agencies (agencies) have recognized the power of AI to 
                improve their operations, processes, and procedures; 
                meet strategic goals; reduce costs; enhance oversight 
                of the use of taxpayer funds; increase efficiency and 
                mission effectiveness; improve quality of services; 
                improve safety; train workforces; and support decision 
                making by the Federal workforce, among other positive 
                developments. Given the broad applicability of AI, 
                nearly every agency and those served by those agencies 
                can benefit from the appropriate use of AI.

                Agencies are already leading the way in the use of AI 
                by applying it to accelerate regulatory reform; review 
                Federal solicitations for regulatory compliance; combat 
                fraud, waste, and abuse committed against taxpayers; 
                identify information security threats and assess trends 
                in related illicit activities; enhance the security and 
                interoperability of Federal Government information 
                systems; facilitate review of large datasets; 
                streamline processes for grant applications; model 
                weather patterns; facilitate predictive maintenance; 
                and much more.

                Agencies are encouraged to continue to use AI, when 
                appropriate, to benefit the American people. The 
                ongoing adoption and acceptance of AI will depend 
                significantly on public trust. Agencies must therefore 
                design, develop, acquire, and use AI in a manner that 
                fosters public trust and confidence while protecting 
                privacy, civil rights, civil liberties, and American 
                values, consistent with applicable law and the goals of 
                Executive Order 13859.

                Certain agencies have already adopted guidelines and 
                principles for the use of AI for national security or 
                defense purposes, such as the Department of Defense's 
                Ethical Principles for Artificial Intelligence 
                (February 24, 2020), and the Office of the Director of 
                National Intelligence's Principles of Artificial 
                Intelligence Ethics for the Intelligence Community 
                (July 23, 2020) and its Artificial Intelligence Ethics 
                Framework for the Intelligence Community (July 23, 
                2020). Such guidelines and principles ensure that the 
                use of AI in those contexts will benefit the American 
                people and be worthy of their trust.

                Section 3 of this order establishes additional 
                principles (Principles) for the use of AI in the 
                Federal Government for purposes other than national 
                security and defense, to similarly ensure that such 
                uses are consistent with our Nation's values and are 
                beneficial to the public. This order further 
                establishes a process for implementing these Principles 
                through common policy guidance across agencies.

                Sec. 2. Policy. (a) It is the policy of the United 
                States to promote the innovation and use of AI, where 
                appropriate, to improve Government operations and 
                services in a manner that fosters public trust, builds 
                confidence

[[Page 78940]]

                in AI, protects our Nation's values, and remains 
                consistent with all applicable laws, including those 
                related to privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.

                    (b) It is the policy of the United States that 
                responsible agencies, as defined in section 8 of this 
                order, shall, when considering the design, development, 
                acquisition, and use of AI in Government, be guided by 
                the common set of Principles set forth in section 3 of 
                this order, which are designed to foster public trust 
                and confidence in the use of AI, protect our Nation's 
                values, and ensure that the use of AI remains 
                consistent with all applicable laws, including those 
                related to privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.
                    (c) It is the policy of the United States that the 
                Principles for the use of AI in Government shall be 
                governed by common policy guidance issued by the Office 
                of Management and Budget (OMB) as outlined in section 4 
                of this order, consistent with applicable law.

                Sec. 3. Principles for Use of AI in Government. When 
                designing, developing, acquiring, and using AI in the 
                Federal Government, agencies shall adhere to the 
                following Principles:

                    (a) Lawful and respectful of our Nation's values. 
                Agencies shall design, develop, acquire, and use AI in 
                a manner that exhibits due respect for our Nation's 
                values and is consistent with the Constitution and all 
                other applicable laws and policies, including those 
                addressing privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.
                    (b) Purposeful and performance-driven. Agencies 
                shall seek opportunities for designing, developing, 
                acquiring, and using AI, where the benefits of doing so 
                significantly outweigh the risks, and the risks can be 
                assessed and managed.
                    (c) Accurate, reliable, and effective. Agencies 
                shall ensure that their application of AI is consistent 
                with the use cases for which that AI was trained, and 
                such use is accurate, reliable, and effective.
                    (d) Safe, secure, and resilient. Agencies shall 
                ensure the safety, security, and resiliency of their AI 
                applications, including resilience when confronted with 
                systematic vulnerabilities, adversarial manipulation, 
                and other malicious exploitation.
                    (e) Understandable. Agencies shall ensure that the 
                operations and outcomes of their AI applications are 
                sufficiently understandable by subject matter experts, 
                users, and others, as appropriate.
                    (f) Responsible and traceable. Agencies shall 
                ensure that human roles and responsibilities are 
                clearly defined, understood, and appropriately assigned 
                for the design, development, acquisition, and use of 
                AI. Agencies shall ensure that AI is used in a manner 
                consistent with these Principles and the purposes for 
                which each use of AI is intended. The design, 
                development, acquisition, and use of AI, as well as 
                relevant inputs and outputs of particular AI 
                applications, should be well documented and traceable, 
                as appropriate and to the extent practicable.
                    (g) Regularly monitored. Agencies shall ensure that 
                their AI applications are regularly tested against 
                these Principles. Mechanisms should be maintained to 
                supersede, disengage, or deactivate existing 
                applications of AI that demonstrate performance or 
                outcomes that are inconsistent with their intended use 
                or this order.
                    (h) Transparent. Agencies shall be transparent in 
                disclosing relevant information regarding their use of 
                AI to appropriate stakeholders, including the Congress 
                and the public, to the extent practicable and in 
                accordance with applicable laws and policies, including 
                with respect to the protection of privacy and of 
                sensitive law enforcement, national security, and other 
                protected information.
                    (i) Accountable. Agencies shall be accountable for 
                implementing and enforcing appropriate safeguards for 
                the proper use and functioning of their applications of 
                AI, and shall monitor, audit, and document compliance

[[Page 78941]]

                with those safeguards. Agencies shall provide 
                appropriate training to all agency personnel 
                responsible for the design, development, acquisition, 
                and use of AI.

                Sec. 4. Implementation of Principles. (a) Existing OMB 
                policies currently address many aspects of information 
                and information technology design, development, 
                acquisition, and use that apply, but are not unique, to 
                AI. To the extent they are consistent with the 
                Principles set forth in this order and applicable law, 
                these existing policies shall continue to apply to 
                relevant aspects of AI use in Government.

                    (b) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the 
                Director of OMB (Director), in coordination with key 
                stakeholders identified by the Director, shall publicly 
                post a roadmap for the policy guidance that OMB intends 
                to create or revise to better support the use of AI, 
                consistent with this order. This roadmap shall include, 
                where appropriate, a schedule for engaging with the 
                public and timelines for finalizing relevant policy 
                guidance. In addressing novel aspects of the use of AI 
                in Government, OMB shall consider updates to the 
                breadth of its policy guidance, including OMB Circulars 
                and Management Memoranda.
                    (c) Agencies shall continue to use voluntary 
                consensus standards developed with industry 
                participation, where available, when such use would not 
                be inconsistent with applicable law or otherwise 
                impracticable. Such standards shall also be taken into 
                consideration by OMB when revising or developing AI 
                guidance.

                Sec. 5. Agency Inventory of AI Use Cases. (a) Within 60 
                days of the date of this order, the Federal Chief 
                Information Officers Council (CIO Council), in 
                coordination with other interagency bodies as it deems 
                appropriate, shall identify, provide guidance on, and 
                make publicly available the criteria, format, and 
                mechanisms for agency inventories of non-classified and 
                non-sensitive use cases of AI by agencies.

                    (b) Within 180 days of the CIO Council's completion 
                of the directive in section 5(a) of this order, and 
                annually thereafter, each agency shall prepare an 
                inventory of its non-classified and non-sensitive use 
                cases of AI, within the scope defined by section 9 of 
                this order, including current and planned uses, 
                consistent with the agency's mission.
                    (c) As part of their respective inventories of AI 
                use cases, agencies shall identify, review, and assess 
                existing AI deployed and operating in support of agency 
                missions for any inconsistencies with this order.

(i) Within 120 days of completing their respective inventories, agencies 
shall develop plans either to achieve consistency with this order for each 
AI application or to retire AI applications found to be developed or used 
in a manner that is not consistent with this order. These plans must be 
approved by the agency-designated responsible official(s), as described in 
section 8 of this order, within this same 120-day time period.

(ii) In coordination with the Agency Data Governance Body and relevant 
officials from agencies not represented within that body, agencies shall 
strive to implement the approved plans within 180 days of plan approval, 
subject to existing resource levels.

                    (d) Within 60 days of the completion of their 
                respective inventories of use cases of AI, agencies 
                shall share their inventories with other agencies, to 
                the extent practicable and consistent with applicable 
                law and policy, including those concerning protection 
                of privacy and of sensitive law enforcement, national 
                security, and other protected information. This sharing 
                shall be coordinated through the CIO and Chief Data 
                Officer Councils, as well as other interagency bodies, 
                as appropriate, to improve interagency coordination and 
                information sharing for common use cases.
                    (e) Within 120 days of the completion of their 
                inventories, agencies shall make their inventories 
                available to the public, to the extent practicable and 
                in accordance with applicable law and policy, including 
                those concerning the protection of privacy and of 
                sensitive law enforcement, national security, and other 
                protected information.

[[Page 78942]]

                Sec. 6. Interagency Coordination. Agencies are expected 
                to participate in interagency bodies for the purpose of 
                advancing the implementation of the Principles and the 
                use of AI consistent with this order. Within 45 days of 
                this order, the CIO Council shall publish a list of 
                recommended interagency bodies and forums in which 
                agencies may elect to participate, as appropriate and 
                consistent with their respective authorities and 
                missions.

                Sec. 7. AI Implementation Expertise. (a) Within 90 days 
                of the date of this order, the Presidential Innovation 
                Fellows (PIF) program, administered by the General 
                Services Administration (GSA) in collaboration with 
                other agencies, shall identify priority areas of 
                expertise and establish an AI track to attract experts 
                from industry and academia to undertake a period of 
                work at an agency. These PIF experts will work within 
                agencies to further the design, development, 
                acquisition, and use of AI in Government, consistent 
                with this order.

                    (b) Within 45 days of the date of this order, the 
                Office of Personnel Management (OPM), in coordination 
                with GSA and relevant agencies, shall create an 
                inventory of Federal Government rotational programs and 
                determine how these programs can be used to expand the 
                number of employees with AI expertise at the agencies.
                    (c) Within 180 days of the creation of the 
                inventory of Government rotational programs described 
                in section 7(b) of this order, OPM shall issue a report 
                with recommendations for how the programs in the 
                inventory can be best used to expand the number of 
                employees with AI expertise at the agencies. This 
                report shall be shared with the interagency 
                coordination bodies identified pursuant to section 6 of 
                this order, enabling agencies to better use these 
                programs for the use of AI, consistent with this order.

                Sec. 8. Responsible Agencies and Officials. (a) For 
                purposes of this order, the term ``agency'' refers to 
                all agencies described in section 3502, subsection (1), 
                of title 44, United States Code, except for the 
                agencies described in section 3502, subsection (5), of 
                title 44.

                    (b) This order applies to agencies that have use 
                cases for AI that fall within the scope defined in 
                section 9 of this order, and excludes the Department of 
                Defense and those agencies and agency components with 
                functions that lie wholly within the Intelligence 
                Community. The term ``Intelligence Community'' has the 
                meaning given the term in section 3003 of title 50, 
                United States Code.
                    (c) Within 30 days of the date of this order, each 
                agency shall specify the responsible official(s) at 
                that agency who will coordinate implementation of the 
                Principles set forth in section 3 of this order with 
                the Agency Data Governance Body and other relevant 
                officials and will collaborate with the interagency 
                coordination bodies identified pursuant to section 6 of 
                this order.

                Sec. 9. Scope of Application. (a) This order uses the 
                definition of AI set forth in section 238(g) of the 
                National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 
                as a reference point. As Federal Government use of AI 
                matures and evolves, OMB guidance developed or revised 
                pursuant to section 4 of this order shall include such 
                definitions as are necessary to ensure the application 
                of the Principles in this order to appropriate use 
                cases.

                    (b) Except for the exclusions set forth in section 
                9(d) of this order, or provided for by applicable law, 
                the Principles and implementation guidance in this 
                order shall apply to AI designed, developed, acquired, 
                or used specifically to advance the execution of 
                agencies' missions, enhance decision making, or provide 
                the public with a specified benefit.
                    (c) This order applies to both existing and new 
                uses of AI; both stand-alone AI and AI embedded within 
                other systems or applications; AI developed both by the 
                agency or by third parties on behalf of agencies for 
                the fulfilment of specific agency missions, including 
                relevant data inputs used to train AI and outputs used 
                in support of decision making; and agencies' 
                procurement of AI applications.

[[Page 78943]]

                    (d) This order does not apply to:

(i) AI used in defense or national security systems (as defined in 44 
U.S.C. 3552(b)(6) or as determined by the agency), in whole or in part, 
although agencies shall adhere to other applicable guidelines and 
principles for defense and national security purposes, such as those 
adopted by the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of 
National Intelligence;

(ii) AI embedded within common commercial products, such as word processors 
or map navigation systems, while noting that Government use of such 
products must nevertheless comply with applicable law and policy to assure 
the protection of safety, security, privacy, civil rights, civil liberties, 
and American values; and

(iii) AI research and development (R&D) activities, although the Principles 
and OMB implementation guidance should inform any R&D directed at potential 
future applications of AI in the Federal Government.

                Sec. 10. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order 
                shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or 
the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director relating to budgetary, administrative, 
or legislative proposals.

                    (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with 
                applicable law and subject to the availability of 
                appropriations.
                    (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, 
                create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, 
                enforceable at law or in equity by any party against 
                the United States, its departments, agencies, or 
                entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any 
                other person.
                <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    December 3, 2020.

[FR Doc. 2020-27065
Filed 12-7-20; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3295-F1-P