Narratives in the nascent policy subsystem of AI biometrics

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 While the Trump administration immediately rescinded this executive order, these comments provide insight into salient AI biometrics technologies and relevant political players.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.