Narratives in the nascent policy subsystem of AI biometrics.

Public Health & Policy Pediatrics Practice Management
Journal: Politics and the life sciences : the journal of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences
Published Date: Jul 11, 2025

Abstract

The Biden administration requested comments regarding "Public and Private Sector Uses of Biometric Technologies" in the Federal Register from October 2021 to January 2022. This generated 130 responses, helped shape the "Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights," and resulted in Executive Order 14110 on "Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence." While the Trump administration immediately rescinded this executive order, these comments provide insight into salient AI biometrics technologies and relevant political players. We first identify AI biometric technologies before asking which institutions and individuals commented (RQ1), and what the substance and tenor of responses were regarding the opportunities and threats posed by AI biometrics (RQ2-a) based on respondent type (RQ2-b). We use text mining and qualitative analyses to illuminate how uncertainty about AI biometric technology in this nascent policy subsystem reflects participants' language use and policy preferences.

Authors

  • Patrick A Stewart
    Department of Political Science, https://ror.org/05jbt9m15University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA.
  • Jeffrey K Mullins
    Department of Information Systems, https://ror.org/05jbt9m15University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA.
  • Thomas J Greitens
    School of Politics, Society, Justice & Public Service, https://ror.org/02xawj266Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, USA.

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