Computing has changed significantly since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. For decades, artificial intelligence (AI) was a subfield of computer science that overpromised and underdelivered. Language mastery has been the holy grail of AI from its early days. Suddenly, computers can communicate fluently in natural language--sometimes nonsense, but always in a very polished language. Suddenly, the dream of artificial general intelligence, which always seemed beyond the horizon, does not seem so far off.

Several policy options exist, or have been proposed, to further responsible artificial intelligence (AI) development and deployment. Institutions, including U.S. government agencies, states, professional societies, and private and public sector businesses, are well positioned to implement these policies. However, given limited resources, not all policies can or should be equally prioritized. We define and review nine suggested policies for furthering responsible AI, rank each policy on potential use and impact, and recommend prioritization relative to each institution type. We find that pre-deployment audits and assessments and post-deployment accountability are likely to have the highest impact but also the highest barriers to adoption. We recommend that U.S. government agencies and companies highly prioritize development of pre-deployment audits and assessments, while the U.S. national legislature should highly prioritize post-deployment accountability. We suggest that U.S. government agencies and professional societies should highly prioritize policies that support responsible AI research and that states should highly prioritize support of responsible AI education. We propose that companies can highly prioritize involving community stakeholders in development efforts and supporting diversity in AI development. We advise lower levels of prioritization across institutions for AI ethics statements and databases of AI technologies or incidents. We recognize that no one policy will lead to responsible AI and instead advocate for strategic policy implementation across institutions.

James A. Hendler was recognized with the AAAI Distinguished Service Award at AAAI-17 for his contributions to the field of artificial intelligence through sustained service to AAAI, other professional societies and government activities promoting the importance of artificial intelligence research. This article presents his recipe for success advice, with advice directed at newer AI researchers (with some notes for experienced ones as well).

The notion of what constitutes a profession has been studied extensively through exploration of the attributes of the activities, roles, and community that lead to their rise, definition, and how they achieve importance and influence and society.1 Common among these attributes are a deep technical expertise, an essential, valued, societal contribution, and the need to adhere to high ethical and technical standards. Computing exhibits all of the attributes of a profession. The compounding of this continued and accelerating advance give rise to a deep technical expertise. Algorithms and systems behavioral and internal complexity are peers to the greatest complexities humanity has known in biology, society, and the universe. Computing's evident importance to society is deep and growing--sophisticated collection and information processing underpins decision-making, logistics, and optimization industry and commerce.

Births are always interesting affairs. According to some, births are always traumatic — a shock to come from the womb to the new world. The birth we give witness to here is that of a new society, the American Association for Artificial Intelligence — AAAI. It has not seemed to me traumatic, but rather almost wholly benign. In a world where not much is benign at the moment, such an event is devoutly to be cherished. The proper topic for this initial message is talk about beginnings and circumstances, goals and aims, character and style. My premier duty as president of AAAI, it appears, will be to give a presidential address at the upcoming annual meeting. Specific precedents being absent, I need to give thought to what belongs in an AAAI presidential address. But one thing I already know: That talk should be devoted to our science, not our society. It should be substantive , not procedural. It should look inward at the state of what we know about intelligence and computers, not outward at our place in the larger society. It is in this message that earthly matters belong.