The Marriage of Artificial Intelligence and Public Policy

Artificial intelligence is infiltrating every aspect of our lives faster than we can keep up – in fact, it’s proliferated into sectors of society that you’re probably not even aware of. Did you know, for instance, that a summit was held at the White House last month to discuss the role of AI in government? The summit’s mission was to highlight the ways AI is already being utilized by federal agencies and conceive of new applications for AI in the federal government – and it’s indicative of the way the government is investing in AI to improve federal services and functionality.

Back in February, the President signed an executive order kick-starting the American AI Initiative, a formal encouragement to federal agencies to look for ways AI might help the government run more smoothly.  The plan emphasizes several key priorities including long-term investment in AI, research into the ethical and cultural impact of AI on society and focusing on safety and security in AI development.  Various federal agencies already employ AI-based programs to help process applications, process satellite imagery and predict where and when maintenance is required for government structures and vehicles.

In keeping with that theme, the Department of Energy recently launched its own Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office to coordinate its endeavors to evolve and expand the department’s use of AI.  Current projects at the DOE include research on 4 of the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world as well as the ongoing design and manufacture of “Frontier,” what the DOE believes will be the most powerful supercomputer in the world. A collaboration between the DOE, supercomputer mainstay Cray and chipmaker AMD and set to make its debut in 2021, Frontier will be able to perform calculations up to 50 times faster than the current standard bearer. “When I came to [Energy] two and a half years ago, we were number three in the world in supercomputing—behind China, and interestingly, Switzerland,” asserts Rick Perry, Secretary of Energy. “During the last 30 months we have increased the funding for the supercomputing capacity of America by 45%,” he said. “We are now back in the position of having the fastest computer in the world.”

AI is also being implemented by the government in slightly less lofty (but perhaps more important) ways. The Department of Veteran Affairs is using AI to scan veterans’ medical records to determine whether they may be at a high risk of suicide through their REACH VET program, and the VA recently appointed Der. Gil Alterovitz to be the department’s first Director of Artificial Intelligence working under the auspices of the Office of Research and Development. Alterovitz helped pen the aforementioned American AI Initiative and considers his life’s work to help bridge the gap between engineering and medicine -- and thinks AI can help. How? By making big data work for veterans. The Million Veteran Program has already gathered medical data from seven hundred and fifty thousand cooperating veterans with the expectation of exceeding the titular million mark in the near future. By using AI to help sort through millions of data points, the VA can determine which medications and treatments are the most effective against commonly found ailments and conditions among veterans. In the near future, the VA may even be able to use the genetic information they’ve gathered to predict and prevent medical emergencies before they happen.

These are just a few examples of investment in AI bearing fruit in the public sector. In future blogs we’ll look into big investments in AI in the private sector and where those paths might take us…