Archives for May 2024

In a special fireside interview at the Special Competitive Studies Project’s AI Expo for National Competitiveness, Washington AI Network founder Tammy Haddad interviewed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer about AI legislation, election concerns, and the global AI race.

Following an introduction from SCSP President & CEO Ylli Bajraktari in front of a standing-room-only audience, Haddad took the stage with Sen. Schumer, who started the conversation by noting how the Washington AI Network is “helping make sure everyone has a seat at the table as we address the challenges and the opportunities of AI.”

Sen. Schumer then made clear that it’s “one of [his] highest priorities to make sure that Congress is ready to do its part to keep and advance America as the global leader in AI”:

In this morning's fireside chat with @haddadmedia, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) says it's "one of [his] highest priorities to make sure that Congress is ready to do its part to keep and advance America as the global leader in AI."#SCSPAIExpo2024 @scsp_ai pic.twitter.com/0pc4MFSgRE

— Washington AI Network (@WashingtonAINet) May 8, 2024

Sen. Schumer laid out his plans to release a roadmap for addressing the risks and benefits of AI in the coming weeks, with committees then “translating that, concretizing that into legislation.”

What are the next steps for the Senate on AI?@SenSchumer says he’s coming out with a roadmap for addressing the risks and benefits of AI, in today’s interview with Tammy Haddad (@haddadmedia) at #SCSPAIExpo2024: pic.twitter.com/ol1yebte9K

— Washington AI Network (@WashingtonAINet) May 8, 2024

.@SenSchumer: "We hope to do our roadmap very shortly. We hope our committees will start … having some hearings marking up and drafting legislation. Some are already."#SCSPAIExpo2024 pic.twitter.com/MbbvG8VprP

— Washington AI Network (@WashingtonAINet) May 8, 2024

Regarding the global AI race, Sen. Schumer also called out competition with China – saying that “If we don’t do anything, China could get ahead of us … They’re spending much more money right now on investing in science and AI than we are now, make no mistake about it.”

Watch the full conversation below:

Kicking off the 2024 AI Expo in Washington, D.C. to a captive, standing-room only crowd, the Washington AI Network’s Tammy Haddad hosted the Washington Post columnist and best-selling author David Ignatius. As the first guest of the Special Competitive Studies Project’s AI Expo for National Competitiveness, Haddad began the conversation by asking Ignatius to analyze the potential hostage deal in Gaza. David warns that conflict in the Middle East often leads to “neither victory nor vanquished” but that this time it’s different. “All Israelis want to vanquish Hamas from running Gaza and won’t settle for anything less.”

Ignatius discussed the challenges FBI Director Chris Wray is facing with the emergence of ISIS-K. He quoted Wray about his concerns from “unknown unknowns” as former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used to say.  

Ignatius’s latest novel, Phantom Orbit, is a spy thriller set against the backdrop of the new space weapons race, part of which is playing out in Ukraine today. The novel explores the rising tensions between the US, China, and Russia in the context of space exploration. 

Guests were among the 13,000 attendees at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center as companies like Palantir, Google, Microsoft and U.S. Government agencies like DARPA and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Guests were given a copy of Ignatius’s new novel, his 12th.