How the United States Will Shape the Future of AI

In 2018, the US government established the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. Robert (Bob) Work, former US Deputy Secretary of Defence, is one of 15 commissioners of a 750 page document outlining the four priority areas in need of attention for the “advance … of artificial intelligence, machine learnings and associated technologies to comprehensively address the national security and defence needs of the United States.”

In this episode of More Intelligent Tomorrow, Chief AI Evangelist Ben Taylor sits down with Bob Work to discuss the findings of the commission, as well as the broader considerations for AI adoption and innovation globally.

“This competition is much more about values and I think, therefore, it should be much more of interest to our citizens,” said Bob, as he broke down the commission findings, “AI is in the centre of a whole bunch of emerging technologies, which are going to change life as we all know it.”

The commission found that there are four priority areas in need of attention. These include establishing a national plan of top down leadership, recruiting top talent, moving away from our reliance on foreign manufacturing, and conducting more AI research.

While the commission made recommendations for how the US can better position itself as an AI world leader in the wake of Chinese advancement, Bob is overall optimistic for the possibilities of AI in our lives.

“There’s so many ways in which AI can improve our lives. I’m an optimist, I think, just seeing some of the things every day that AI is doing to improve the effectiveness and the efficiency of the Department of Defence, and in the Department of Energy, et cetera, I’m very optimistic.”