Data May Be The New Oil But Artificial Intelligence Is The Engine That It Fuels

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated in 2017 that the country that establishes superiority in artificial intelligence will become the ruler of the world. More recently, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and renowned psychologist Steven Pinker engaged in some rather heated debates over AI use, risks and regulation, with Musk warning that while the benefits of the new tech are revolutionary, the exponential increase in hardware ability and software talent also make AI a potential source of incredible risk. Given these disparate opinions, it's important that federal technologists collaborate with industry leaders to determine the best way to introduce AI to their agencies, while mitigating risks and capitalizing on its intended use and benefits. It is also critical that industry re-evaluate the speed and manner with which they bring any new technology to market. While there are many ways AI is being used positively to improve or simplify life, AI is largely open source so the code is publicly available to anyone: ambitious startups, innovative developers and malicious actors. While many of the big tech companies and leaders in the burgeoning AI field make their code available to the public with the goal of stimulating innovation, many would argue more adversaries than legitimate users are leveraging the code for ill-intent, as evidenced by the foreign influence of the 2016 election.