Building a More Public AI Ecosystem
On August 14th, Aspen Digital, the Library of Congress, Metagov, and the Public AI Network hosted an invitation-only gathering to strengthen and spark new collaborations across the public sector, academia, and civil society to build a public AI ecosystem that benefits the American public.
Across the government, many efforts are already underway to put AI to work to positively impact the American public, from the AI Executive Order to the National AI Research Resource Pilot. Building on this momentum, this event brought together leaders from the public sector, academia, tech, and civil society to lay a foundation for viable public alternatives and complements to private AI systems.
The event opened with a keynote from Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, on why this is the moment for public AI.
Speakers
While much of the programming was discussion-based and interactive, remarks from the following speakers punctuated the event.
Opening Keynote: Why this is the moment for public AI
Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law at Harvard University
Lightning Talks
Julia Lane, Professor at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
Beth Noveck, Professor at Northeastern University and Director of The GovLab
Carolyn Dee, Assistant Secretary for Technology at the New York Governor’s Office
Robert Underwood, Postdoctoral Appointee at Argonne National Laboratory
AI in the Agencies: Expert panel
Katerina Antypas, Director of the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure at the National Science Foundation
Travis Hoppe, Assistant Director of AI Research and Development at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Victoria Houed, Director of AI Policy and Strategy at the U.S. Department of Commerce
Zach Whitman, Chief Data Scientist and Chief AI Officer at the U.S. General Services Administration
Moderated by B Cavello, Director of Emerging Technologies at Aspen Digital
This event was made possible thanks to our co-hosts at the Library of Congress and support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.