NIST Creates Generative AI Standards Useable as Best Practices

The government's standard-setting body, NIST, in late July published non-binding guidelines on the use of AI that can serve as a reference for any company looking for guidance on how to think about deploying AI tools.  The framework is not law, and is not mandatory.  Nonetheless, many large tech players have agreed to follow the guidelines voluntarily.  This is likely to mean these guidelines will find their way into the marketplace both through thought leadership and via mechanisms such as contracts with suppliers to those large tech companies.

WHY IT MATTERS

Although AI is still unregulated in much of the world, that will change one day soon.  Meantime, NIST has done the heavy lifting of looking at issues and recommending specific ways to approach them, including with common sense recommendations such as testing it, drafting internal policies about use of it, and more.  These can be helpful as a reference to any company that doesn't have the resources to parse through the many issues on its own.  In essence, NIST has given us all a Cliff's Notes guide to generative AI and how to approach it.