Enthusiasm for the vast number of problem-solving, transformative benefits that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can provide has driven the stock market significantly higher in 2024, attracted a bevy of venture capital and other investments, and helps explain why the White House is taking a much more positive look at AI.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who leads the Administration’s AI policy, should seize on the promise that AI offers to so many Americans, especially those in tough spots. She can start by championing AI in the upcoming Vice-Presidential debate and beyond. This would inject substance, energy, and hope into the public policy realm, which desperately needs it.
Up until last month, the White House had been largely talking down AI, warning of its risks, promulgating restrictions and regulations for government agencies, and seeking vague international regulatory cooperation.
In June, though, the White House issued a series of policy papers discussing AI’s transformative potential.
Regarding AI and health, the White House says, “New medicines for seemingly intractable diseases could be developed and approved in months rather than decades … The vast majority of over 10 thousand known diseases have no effective medication today. With fewer than 40 new drugs becoming available each year, many millions of people and their families are suffering and waiting for decades.”
AI can also be transformative in developing new and better semiconductor materials. As the White House says, “A dramatic acceleration for implementing new materials for semiconductor manufacturing can simultaneously address a critical safety and health challenge (and) enable higher performance chips…The resulting contribution to the semiconductor innovative ecosystem will boost U.S. leadership in that critical field.”
There is much more. Harris’s AI team also discusses how AI can provide dramatic benefits in education, weather forecasting, improving the electric grid, and improving the delivery of government services.
While at times publicly acknowledging the great potential of AI, the Vice President has so far primarily spoken about the risks of the technology.
During a November 1, 2023 speech in the United Kingdom, with a generally dark assessment about AI, she said, “I offer that we must consider and address the full spectrum of AI risk – threats to humanity as a whole, as well as threats to individuals, communities, to our institutions, and to our most vulnerable populations.”
Earlier, the Vice President led a May 4, 2023, meeting “with the CEOs of four American companies at the forefront of AI innovation – Alphabet, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI – to underscore … the importance of driving responsible, trustworthy, and ethical innovation with safeguards that mitigate risks and potential harms to individuals and society.”
Two months later, on July 21, 2023, the White House announced it had secured commitments from seven leading AI companies “to help move toward safe, secure, and transparent development of AI technology.”
This is not to say that all the potential risks with AI have been addressed. On May 15, a bipartisan group of US Senators spoke of AI’s vast promise and possible risks. Majority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, “No technology offers more promise to our modern world than artificial intelligence. But AI also presents a host of new policy challenges.”
Furthermore, the world needs the US to lead on AI to develop the technology’s benefits most quickly and responsibly. If we fail to do so, we risk out economic and military leadership.
This is America’s moment to capitalize on the untapped potential of AI. It could also be Vice President Harris’s moment if she audaciously discusses the hope that AI provides, as Senator Schumer and others have done, while noting the White House’s findings and activities on AI to date, including the commitments obtained from companies.
By pivoting to optimism and hope, the Vice President will capture the interest and imagination of many Americans, especially those anxious about our future. She should seize the moment.
