Incubating Artificial Intelligence

In February 2016, Google received a letter from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) stating that the artificial intelligence (AI) in the tech giant’s self-driving car could now be considered the “driver” for certain regulatory purposes. This opinion signified a paradigm shift in policy and the first step in what is sure to be a complex and deepening relationship between regulators and artificial intelligence-driven industries.

The early decades of the 21st century will serve as a sandbox for artificial intelligence-based technologies that will transform the global economy and human society. In the 20th century, we saw a similar co-evolution of human invention and policy with mixed results. (The internal combustion and atomic power are two examples of technologies that led to new economic possibilities, but also created new societal dangers.) Integrating transformational technologies of the 20th century into productive components of modern society required a careful reconfiguration of the relationship between machines, infrastructure, institutions, and people. If anything the industries of the 21st century will be an even greater challenge.

Join New America, Future Tense and Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society for a discussion on the evolving intersection between governance and innovation through the lens of general artificial intelligence and two artificial intelligence-linked technologies: automated vehicles and civilian drones.

Follow the conversation online using #CarsAndDrones and by following @FutureTenseNow.

Participants:

Hilary M. Cain
Director, Technology and Innovation Policy
Government and Industry Affairs, TOYOTA

David C. Vladeck
Professor of Law, Georgetown

Lisa Ellman
Partner and Co-Chair, Global UAS Practice, Hogan Lovells

Corey Owens
Head of Public Policy, DJI

Moderator:

Future Tense is a partnership of Arizona State University, New America and Slate.

The School for the Future of Innovation in Society explores the complex interplay of science, technology, and society. Our students connect the needs and values of society to new innovations in order to build exciting, inclusive, better futures for everyone.