Politics

In this role, I’ll tell you what happened. As I showed up in October of 2022 for this job, ChatGPT showed up in November of 2022. Not surprisingly, I would say largely my first year got hijacked by AI but in the best possible way. First, because I think it’s an important moment for society to contend with all the implications of AI, and secondly, because, as I’ve been doing this work, I think a lot of the reason AI is such an important technology in our lives today is because of its breadth. Part of what that means is that it is definitely a disruptor for every other major national ambition that we have. If we get it right, I think it can be a huge accelerator for better health outcomes, for meeting the climate crisis, for everything that we really have to get done.

The machines don’t have to make huge advances in capability for that to happen. That’s a today problem, and we need to get after it right now. We’re not philosophers; we’re trying to make policies that get this right for the country. For our work, I think it’s really important to be clear about the specific applications, the risks, the potential, and then take actions now on things that are problems now and then lay the ground so that we can avoid problems to the greatest degree possible going forward.