Constitution Breakdown #9: Alondra Nelson

The episode opens by walking listeners through Articles VI and VII of the Constitution before shifting into a wide-ranging conversation about artificial intelligence with Dr. Alondra Nelson. The hosts (Roman Mars and Elizabeth Joe) frame Article VII as the ratification clause that made the Constitution effective when New Hampshire became the ninth state on June 21, 1788. They then unpack Article VI’s trio of provisions: preservation of Revolutionary War debts (clause 1), the Supremacy Clause (clause 2) that authorizes federal law to preempt conflicting state law, and the no-religious-test provision (clause 3). The discussion establishes preemption as a recurring practical issue: when federal and state rules overlap, courts apply doctrinal tests to decide whether Congress intended to displace state law.

That constitutional ground-setting segues into Nelson’s primer on AI and governance. She uses a broad, OECD-influenced definition—machine-based systems making inferences from data to generate predictions, recommendations, or content—and surveys both beneficial uses (medical imaging, agriculture, traffic optimization) and harms (hallucinations in generative models, biased resume screening, predictive policing). Nelson recounts how the Biden-era OSTP used public engagement (a Wired op-ed in October 2021 and extensive outreach) to produce the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights (white paper, Oct 2022) and outlines its five core principles: safety/effectiveness, anti-discrimination, privacy, notice/explanation, and human alternatives. She explains that Biden’s 2023 executive order built on the blueprint—directing agencies, proposing Defense Production Act reporting for powerful models, and compiling a long, cross-agency strategy—while the later Trump administration rescinded that EO and urged Congress to preempt state AI laws. With no comprehensive federal statute enacted, Nelson and the hosts describe a state-level patchwork (California, Colorado, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas) experimenting with disclosures, civil-rights protections, deep-fake rules, and procurement constraints. Nelson advocates for “thick alignment”—continuous, context-sensitive safety and value deliberation involving communities—noting she’s encouraged by public engagement even if federal legislation remains unlikely in the short term.