See You in a Month: AI's Long Data Tail - War on the Rocks

This submission is in response to the search for ideas from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. It addresses item 3b -- the infrastructure needed to sustain leadership in artificial intelligence, and item 3d -- how data should be collected, stored, protected, and shared. If you are an analyst -- it does not matter what kind -- then like me, you eventually become begrudgingly resigned to spending most of your time preparing for, rather than actually conducting analysis. I sometimes share a dark joke with my fellow analysts. When asked how long it will take to provide an answer to a question, my response is, "About two days. But I'll see you in a month because it will take me 28 days to find, beg for access to, and clean the data I need to answer your question."