Talk Abstract:
What is Congress doing about artificial intelligence? I will share what I learned during a one-year position inside a U.S. Senate office as an AI expert through the AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship program. There is a high demand for technical expertise within Congress, especially for AI. More than 300 AI-related bills have been introduced in the current congressional session; we’ll look at the key AI topics getting attention. I’ll describe how I developed a consumer AI literacy bill and then worked for months with a talented team to achieve the bill’s introduction in the Senate in July. I’ll also suggest ways that you can contribute your expertise and make a difference locally and nationwide.

Kiri Wagstaff is a AAAI Fellow with a focus on deployed machine learning systems that help us explore, understand, and learn about the universe. She recently returned to Corvallis from Washington, D.C., after serving as an artificial intelligence expert in the U.S. Senate for a year. She previously served as a principal researcher in machine learning at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and an associate research professor and senior instructor at Oregon State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University, followed by an M.S. in Geological Sciences (University of Southern California) and an MLIS in Library and Information Science (San Jose State University). She received the Lew Allen Award for Excellence in Research and two NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medals. She serves on the AAAI U.S. Policy Committee and the OSU AI Program Executive Committee. She will teach “Machine Learning Challenges in the Real World” at OSU in Spring 2025.