UC San Diego Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute (HDSI) and Philosophy Professor has been invited to serve as a member of the NAIAC as an inaugural appointee.
NAIAC is tasked with providing advice to the President and the National AI Initiative Office about AI in the United States. The new advisory committee will provide recommendations on topics including the current state of U.S.
AI competitiveness; progress in implementing the Initiative; the state of science around AI; issues related to AI workforce; how to leverage Initiative resources; the need to update the Initiative; the balance of activities and funding across the Initiative; the adequacy of the National AI R&D strategic plan; management, coordination, and activities of the Initiative; adequacy of addressing societal issues; opportunities for international cooperation; issues related to accountability and legal rights; and how AI can enhance opportunities for diverse geographic regions.
The advice and recommendations will include not only technical and research priorities but also the ethical, legal, and societal issues that arise through the use of AI.
Professor Danks’s appointment begins (when) and will continue for a 3-year term, with the first committee meeting on Wednesday, May 4, 2022. The meeting will be open to the public via webcast.
“It is an honor to serve as an advisor for the national strategy on AI research, development, and use,” said Danks. “AI is transforming modern society, and we need to ensure that AI works for the benefit of all, not only the few. The NAIAC provides an opportunity to help guide the ways that AI is impacting our lives.”
After 18 years at Carnegie Mellon, Danks joined UC San Diego’s Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute in July 2021 to have the opportunity to explore both technical and ethical problems and issues that arise because of the rapidly increasing importance of data.
These challenges range from new methods to discover the causal structure of the world from data to novel ways of regulating and guiding the uses of data.
Service on the NAIAC will turn that focus to critical issues arising from the increasing use of AI in all aspects of people’s lives.
Danks received an A.B. in Philosophy from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego.
His turn towards the Data Science field was driven by his interest in how a ‘cognitive agent’—whether human, machine, or animal can understand and make decisions in an incredibly complicated world.
The first meeting of the 27-person NAIAC team includes members from academia, industry, and civil society
