Stanford HAI Congressional Boot Camp on Artificial Intelligence

Stanford HAI staff will welcome congressional staffers to campus and provide an overview of why the boot camp was created and what Stanford HAI hopes for participants to gain.

This session will cover the basic concepts of AI, including compute power, neural networks, narrow vs. general AI, gradient descent, and more. It will also provide a bird’s-eye view of the AI landscape, covering different AI techniques such as deep learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and supervised and unsupervised learning. Participants will walk away with a greater understanding of the primary aspects of AI and be better prepared for the boot camp. 

The consequences of deploying robust AI and decision-making technologies in safety-critical systems such as driverless vehicles and autonomous aircraft are enormous. Challenges for AI developers range from biased inputs, constantly evolving conditions, and explainability issues, among others. This session will discuss the obstacles developers face as well as the difficult—and often politically fraught—decisions they make around operational efficiency and how they define acceptable risk parameters.

Contemporary AI technologies run on data, but AI developers face significant obstacles in acquiring and cleaning data. In addition, developers must do their best to ensure data’s inherent biases (and their non-obvious proxies) are accounted for in their AI systems. Moreover, different social values around privacy, data ownership, and data creation impact what AI technologies are possible. This session will dive into how the data policies developed today will shape the technologies of tomorrow.

AI and automation will have a rippling effect on today’s workforce and the future of work. Mainstream narratives forecast AI will displace workers and funnel profits up to a select few. Alternatively, AI has the potential to augment and supercharge labor, ensuring the benefits of AI are spread and enjoyed widely. This session dives into deeper detail regarding what exactly we should expect as AI and automation integrate into the economy and the subsequent consequences for the workforce. The panelists will also discuss how policies can reshape and guide what the future holds.

Recently, a new successful paradigm for building AI systems has emerged: train one model on a huge amount of data and adapt it to numerous applications. We have deemed such a model a foundation model. This session unpacks how foundation models were created and deployed, the requirements to build one, expected and unexpected consequences of these models, and other hot topics surrounding the use of large AI models.

The rapid advancements in AI in recent years haves shocked the world. From models generating realistic images from scratch to ambient technologies that enhance the human condition, the possibilities of what AI can do for humanity are endless. Understanding today’s cutting-edge AI will help steer tomorrow’s innovation. This session will dive into what is on the horizon of AI advancements and how these technologies can be leveraged to benefit society.

2 hours

Stanford HAI staff will lead a discussion debriefing the key concepts that staffers learned in earlier sessions. They will also offer a preview of Day 2 and leave ample time for questions.

Spying has never been more ubiquitous—or less understood. This crisis in intelligence education is fueling conspiracy theories and hurting intelligence policy. At the same time, AI is introducing new opportunities to strengthen U.S. intelligence capabilities, but only if decision makers understand how the U.S. intelligence community and AI technologies actually work.  This session will separate fact from fiction as panelists discuss the past, present, and future of American espionage and how AI is creating an adapt-or-fail moment for U.S. intelligence agencies.

The rapid spread of disinformation has challenged societies and deepened mistrust, threatening to erode democratic values. Furthermore, synthetic media from the advent of generative adversarial networks (GANS) has created deceptively realistic images and videos—known as deepfakes—that are indistinguishable from reality. These developments are leading to an information crisis where consumers are becoming less certain of the veracity of the content they encounter. This session will dive into how AI has changed the information economy and how policy can help protect people from fake content.

China remains one of the most complex geopolitical challenges for the United States. The Chinese government has made clear its intention to be the leader in AI and other key dual-use technologies to secure an economic, political, and military advantage. Furthermore, the Chinese Communist Party uses AI technology to commit human rights abuses at home and abroad in a fundamentally anti-democratic manner. How can the U.S. maintain human-centered values in its technology and remain a global leader that advances an international order using technology for society’s benefit? This session will dive deeply into the nuances of Sino-American relations and how the U.S. can maintain its technological superiority.

The risks and threats stemming from global climate change are becoming a growing issue for policymakers. At the same time, the rapid advancements of AI have presented possible opportunities to use this technology to help tackle our greatest climate challenges, from achieving net-zero emissions to preparing for extreme weather events. Conversely, AI continues to increasingly rely on compute power, which is an energy-intensive resource and contributes to the emission of CO2. As a result, there is mounting concern around AI’s environmental impact, drawing attention to the cost-benefit analysis of AI advancements. This session will unpack how AI can be used to help confront climate change while also better understanding AI’s own ripple effects in the environment.

Silicon Valley, which is home to venture capital, startups, and leading tech firms, is a global center of tech innovation. From the startup lab to the boardrooms of major companies, this session will bring together startup founders and tech executives to map out Silicon Valley’s innovation ecosystem, discuss its vibrancy, and critically think about the consequences of AI developments on society. Panelists will offer their perspectives on starting, funding, and running successful companies as well as providing counsel to companies on ensuring ethical business practices. 

The introduction of AI into society has had ripple effects on governments worldwide. Disinformation spreading on digital platforms—further amplified by AI—has had real-world consequences on democracy. Additionally, authoritarian countries are leveraging AI to further surveil and control their populations. The future of democracy hangs in the balance of making sure AI is used to affirm democratic systems and reinforce norms and values for the betterment of humanity. This dinner discussion will unpack the complexities of AI as it intertwines with different governments and considers how to ensure democracy prevails in a digital world.

Stanford HAI staff will lead a discussion reviewing key concepts from the first two days of the boot camp. They will also offer a preview of Day 3 and leave ample time for questions.

AI has the potential to dramatically improve education. From teacher support to personalized student engagement, AI could democratize extraordinary teaching and learning. But dangers and concerns loom. Collecting data from children raises privacy concerns, and current inequities in the education system might be exacerbated by the introduction of AI. This session will look into how AI can be leveraged to improve the education system without causing harm to teachers and students.

Artististic and cultural expression is one of the hallmarks of advanced societies. Today we understand the intersection of arts and culture with wellness, innovation, creativity, diversity, and health. AI is expanding artistic and cultural expression, opening up new possibilities for our state, local, and federal arts and culture programs. This session will explore why and how AI needs to be more integrated with the humanities and arts in order to contribute to human flourishing, especially when it comes to social justice.

Some of the most exciting advances of this technological wave are focused on healthcare: faster and better diagnoses, enhanced therapies, increased hospital standards which reduce patient harms, and protein folding which has the potential to cure debilitating diseases. Healthcare is on the cusp of a revolution that will advance human well-being. At the same time, the United States faces an incredible shortage of qualified healthcare workers, lacks proper evaluation of medical devices, and struggles with unclear liability risk/clinician responsibility. These mounting challenges raise the question, can AI help “save” the U.S. healthcare system? This session will highlight the coming changes in healthcare, the opportunities and risks AI presents, and how policies can ensure safe and robust health systems.

The U.S. government is in great need of a technological upgrade. From streamlining administrative processes to providing personalized services to constituents, there is ample opportunity for AI to help government agencies achieve their missions. However, integrating AI into the government is not as easy as obtaining and deploying the technology. Talent, infrastructure, public trust, and morale play equally important roles in ensuring the successful modernization of government. This session will dive into current use-cases of AI in government, the challenges and successes of these cases, and how to improve the integration of new technologies that will help the government serve its citizens

This is a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting . . . The increased numbers, variety, and potency are staggering. As such, we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. Yet, it is possible to find contentment and connectedness by keeping dopamine in check. This session will provide a practical, science-informed approach to addressing compulsive overconsumption of everything from food, to sex, to video games.

Staffers will take a trip to Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) to get hands-on experience in virtual and augmented reality technology (VR/AR). This session will dive into how VR/AR will transform society, how to create VR/AR that will enhance and not detract from reality, and the psychological processes that people undergo while using VR/AR.

The final dinner will recap the entire boot camp, solicit feedback on what staffers enjoyed, and invite suggestions for areas of improvement. Senior HAI staff and directors will lead this conversation.