NFHA President and CEO Lisa Rice Warns of Perils of Unchecked AI during World Summit AI Keynote in Doha 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

NFHA President and CEO Lisa Rice Warns of Perils of Unchecked AI during World Summit AI Keynote in Doha 

Doha, Qatar – National Fair Housing Alliance President and CEO Lisa Rice delivered a keynote address today at the World Summit AI Conference in Doha, Qatar. Rice’s address, “Trust by Design: Building Impactful, Responsible AI Systems,” marks the first time a U.S. civil rights leader received an invitation to speak at a World Summit AI convening.  

“We use AI to transform people’s lives and strengthen communities. When designed responsibly, these systems don’t rely on protected labels or demographic segmentation, they focus on patterns that help us create fairer, more effective solutions,” said Rice.  

Rice’s keynote focused on the urgent need to embed civil rights principles in AI development and deployment. She outlined how data powering AI systems are often distorted by long-standing inequities, and how unexamined algorithms can scale discrimination rather than solve it. She noted AI is becoming ubiquitous, but its rapid adoption does not mean the technology is without error.   

Key points from Rice’s remarks included: 

• Data, the backbone of AI, is often tainted by structural bias. 
• Algorithms, while seen as neutral, can replicate or intensify discrimination. 
• Technology can systemize bias, making it easier to spread and harder to detect.

Rice illustrated these risks using the U.S. credit system, where 19 percent of Americans are credit invisible or unscorable. Of that group, Black, Latino, Native American, and some Asian communities are nearly twice as likely as White people to be credit invisible. People of Color are also twice as likely to be denied credit, even with similar financial profiles to White applicants.  

Credit invisibility is built into financial and legal structures, especially for people who rely on non-traditional credit markets like cash advances and pay-day loans, which offer fewer protections and exorbitant fees and interest rates. 

Rice also noted that global trust in AI remains low with only 46 percent of people worldwide trusting AI systems. 70 percent of people believe regulation and oversight are necessary.  

“We need to develop the policies, the guidance, the governance protocols, and the AI systems for the future to help the world understand you can build trustworthy AI,” she added.  

Rice also highlighted the work of NFHA’s Responsible AI Lab which advocates for explainability, accountability, data privacy and protections, and human oversight in automated systems. NFHA champions a clear, consistent regulatory framework that protects people while giving businesses the stability and clarity needed to innovate responsibly. 

For interviews, please e-mail NFHA Senior Advisor for Communications, Marketing, and Education Julian Glover at JGlover@NationalFairHousing.org 

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The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) is the country’s only national civil rights organization dedicated solely to eliminating all forms of housing and lending discrimination and ensuring equal opportunities for all people. As the trade association for over 170 fair housing and justice-centered organizations and individuals throughout the U.S. and its territories, NFHA works to dismantle longstanding barriers to equity and build diverse, inclusive, well-resourced communities.