Biden’s top tech advisor on why AI safety is a “today problem”

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Today, I’m talking with Arati Prabhakar, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. That’s a cabinet-level position, where she works as the chief science and tech advisor to President Biden. Arati and her team of about 140 people at the OSTP are responsible for advising the president on not only big developments in science but also about major innovations in tech, much of which come from the private sector.

Her job involves guiding regulatory efforts, government investment, and setting priorities around big-picture projects like Biden’s cancer moonshot and combating climate change. More recently, Arati has been spending a lot of time talking about the future of AI and semiconductors, so I had the opportunity to dig into both of those topics with her as the generative AI boom continues and the results of the CHIPS Act become more visible.

One note before we start: I sat down with Arati last month, just a couple of days before the first presidential debate and its aftermath, which swallowed the entire news cycle. So you’re going to hear us talk a lot about President Biden’s agenda and the White House’s policy record on AI, among other topics. But you’re not going to hear anything about the president, his age, or the presidential campaign.

Links:

• Biden’s top science adviser resigns after acknowledging demeaning behavior | NYT
• Teen girls confront an epidemic of deepfake nudes in schools | NYT
• Senate committee passes three bills to safeguard elections from AI | The Verge
• The RIAA versus AI, explained | The Verge
• Lawyers say OpenAI could be in real trouble with Scarlett Johansson | The Verge
• Barack Obama on AI, free speech, and the future of the internet | Decoder
• Meet the Woman Who Showed President Biden ChatGPT | WIRED
• Biden releases AI executive order | The Verge
• Biden’s science adviser explains the new hard line on China | WashPo
• Where the CHIPS Act money has gone | The Verge

Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23961278

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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