Recently, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists — a media organization that “equips the public, policymakers, and scientists with the information needed to reduce man-made threats to our existence” and is famous for their Doomsday Clock — held a virtual program titled, “The Artificial Intelligence Era: What will the future look like.”  Nadya Bliss, a Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Executive Council member and the Executive Director of the Global Security Initiative at Arizona State University, moderated the program. The speakers were Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientific Officer at Microsoft and a former CCC Council member, and Mary (Missy) Cummings, the director of Duke’s Humans and Autonomy Laboratory and a co-organizer of […]

Yesterday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Initiative Office launched the new AI.gov website.  This website is the home of the National AI Initiative Act of 2020 and as stated in the press release “the connection point to ongoing activities to advance U.S. leadership in AI from policy documents and strategies, to applications of AI, to the latest news and updates from the agencies and federal advisory boards helping shape the activities of the National AI Initiative.”  National AI Initiative Act of 2020 became law on January 1, 2021, providing for a coordinated program across the entire Federal government to accelerate AI research […]

In October 2020, the Computing Research Association (CRA) and the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) released more than a dozen white papers exploring areas and issues around computing research with the potential to address national priorities over the next four years. Called “Quadrennial Papers,” the white papers attempt to portray a broad picture of computing research detailing potential research directions, challenges, and recommendations for policymakers and the computing research community. As a continuation of our 2020 series, we are delighted to release two more papers titled: “Taking Stock of the Present and Future of Smart Technologies for Older Adults and Caregivers” and “Imagine All the People: Citizen Science, Artificial Intelligence, and […]

The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, a congressionally-chartered committee charged with reviewing AI and related technologies and making recommendations to address U.S. national security and defense needs, today released its final report, endorsing significant new investments in AI research, strategies for building the AI workforce, and guidance for using AI in warfare while upholding U.S. democratic values. The report is likely to inform policy activity around defense-related AI issues in Congress and at the Department of Defense over the next months and years. Computing Research Association (CRA) Government Affairs Director, Peter Harsha and Nadya T. Bliss, Executive Director of ASU’s Global Security Institute and Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Executive […]

Contributions to this post were provided by CCC Vice Chair Daniel Lopresti.  AI for Good Global Summit hosted a webinar on AI to Prevent Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking and Forced and Child Labour today and featured Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Executive Council Member Nadya Bliss (Executive Director of the Global Security Initiative at Arizona State University) as well as Alice Eckstein (Programme Manager, Modern Slavery Programme at United Nations University – Centre for Policy Research), Doreen Boyd (Professor of Earth Observation, Faculty of Social Sciences at University of Nottingham), James Goulding (Deputy Director N/LAB, Faculty of Social Sciences at University of Nottingham) and Anjali Mazumder (Thematic Lead on AI, Justice […]

Significant contributions were provided by CCC Senior Program Associate, Khari Douglas.  The virtual AAAS 2021 meeting took place February 8th – 11th, 2021 and included a highly topical session titled Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and Societal Impacts: An Inflection Point. The February 10th event included former Computing Research Association (CRA) board member Moshe Vardi (Rice University), Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Executive Council member Suresh Venkatasubramanian (University of Utah), Seny Kamara (Brown University), and Dan Reed (University of Utah) as speakers. This session aimed to show how the computing revolution has democratized access to information and disrupted entire economic sectors, with associated human effects, both positive and negative. Likewise, this computing revolution […]