In case we missed you in 2019, here’s the recap:
UW’s Director of the Paul G. Allen School, Hank Levy, chronicled the chain of events that led to Washington’s preeminence in the field of artificial intelligence, including Amazon providing 2 $1M professorships to lure a pair of talented professors away from offers at Stanford and MIT, Paul Allen’s creation of the AI Institute, and legislation that allowed local universities to invest in their programs while other schools were still reeling from the recession.
Bethany Edmunds of Northeastern University explained terms commonly used in AI and drew distinctions among frequently confused terms, setting the stage for Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, to take a deeper dive in to the opportunities and risks associated with AI. Dr. Etzioni argued for a nuanced approach to AI regulation, given that the term is used across applications that vary widely in terms of the autonomy ceded to algorithms, from low autonomy applications such as Google Maps to high autonomy ones that can deploy weapons of mass destruction.
The AI Blindspot Project’s Dan Taber discussed ways in which human biases can be amplified through the process of developing AI and provided guidance on reducing biases at each step of the journey.
ITIF’s Daniel Castro explored AI policy at the national and international level, chronicling legislation around AI. In a deeper dive, Garth Gibson of the Vector Institute discussed the lessons the US can learn from Canada’s effort to drive success in AI.
Ewan Duncan, Director at McKinsey & Company, explored the impact of AI across industries, both in terms of performance gains and labor substitution. His conclusion is that, while relatively few jobs are at risk of full automation, AI will transform activities across most occupations. As a result, the skills needed to succeed in the workforce will shift toward more technological and socioemotional skills. Finally, a panel engaged in a lively debate about AI’s potential to disrupt the workforce.
Check here for more from our 2019 Policy Matters Summit!