The Washington AI Network convened policy stakeholders on Tuesday, October 17, at The House of 1229 for Cocktails and Conversation on AI in advance of the National AI Advisory Committee (NAIAC) meetings this week. Leading AI policy experts from both sides of the aisle, the White House, diplomatic missions including the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, and business discussed the biggest questions and opportunities.
Shane Tews from American Enterprise Institute gave the audience perspective after decades of experience with tech policy about the need to focus on education and reskilling the workforce on AI. Guests also heard from several members of NAIAC.
Maryam Mujica, Director of Public Affairs, listed some of the ways AI is already powering Booking Holdings (Booking.com, Priceline, OpenTable, KAYAK, Agoda) and noted there are risks, for instance the issue of bias, “We would all be rightfully outraged if a human travel agent would not mention certain hotels to say an under-represented group…but would we even be aware of a large language model that discriminates?”
Guests included: Embassy of Ireland Deputy Chief of Mission Orla Keane, Karina Barao from the Special Competitive Studies Project, Center for AI Safety’s Varun Krovi, Sen. Schumer’s AI Lead Tim Ryder, White House Special Assistant Erica Loewe, Professor at Rice University and NAIAC member Fred Oswald, OpenAI’s Chan Park, President of ITI Jason Oxman, Business Roundtable VP of Innovation and Technology Amy Shuart, RIAA’s Jessica Stoll Richard, Sen. Schumer’s Deputy Research Director Hanna Taley, AEI’s Shane Tews, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands First Secretary Correlli van Hulten, the Wilson Center’s Kellee Wicker, The Washington Post’s Cat Zakrzewski, White House Office of Public Engagement Director Steve Benjamin, YouTube’s Josh Blumenfeld, German Embassy Digital Policy Advisor Julian Ramirez,Director Senay Bulbul, Sen. Schumer’s Director of Economic Development Jon Cardinal, Lynda Carter, GlobalWIN co-founder Helen Milby, Blue Owl Group’s Colin Crowell, CNN’s Jessica Dean, Sen. Booker Policy Adviser Ian Gray, Data and Society Executive Director and NAIAC member Janet Haven, EqualAI CEO and NAIAC chair Miriam Vogel. Office of the Minority Leader Senior Policy Advisor Evan Holander, Deniz Houston from the Delegation of the EU, Sen. Heinrich technology policy fellow Max Katz, and Sen. Hickenlooper senior policy advisor Edgar Rivas.
View photos here.
