Future U.S. economic competitiveness and national security will rely not only on a robust base of AI talent to develop cutting-edge systems, but also on the broader U.S. workforce having a baseline AI proficiency. How can we secure and strengthen U.S. leadership in both of these categories? CSET Research Fellow Diana Gehlhaus and other experts unpacked the current state of our domestic AI talent pipeline, and discussed what policies we need today to stay ahead. These ideas included reimagining the future of AI education and workforce development, and creating career pathways for technical and non-technical talent.
Recording and Discussion
Participants
Dr. Diana Gehlhaus is a Research Fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). Prior to CSET, she was a doctoral fellow at the RAND Corporation, receiving her PhD in Policy Analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Diana’s research focuses on the intersection of tech and talent, including domestic talent pipelines in AI and other emerging technologies; workforce development and education policy; youth career and educational decision making; trends in employer hiring, recruiting, and retention; military and federal civilian talent management; and technology and telecommunications policy. Prior to RAND she was an economist and director of the Young American Prosperity Project at the Progressive Policy Institute, a policy analyst at the U.S. Export-Import Bank and an Economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. She has an M.A. in applied economics from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in mathematics and economics from Bucknell University. Diana’s media appearances include CNBC, Comcast Newsmakers, Wisconsin Public Radio, Nevada Public Radio and the Richard Fowler Show. Her research and commentary have been featured in The Hill, USA Today, Fortune, Washington Post and the Harvard Business Review blog, among other outlets.
Dr. Nicol Turner Lee is a senior fellow in Governance Studies, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation, and serves as Co-Editor-In-Chief of TechTank. Dr. Turner Lee researches public policy designed to enable equitable access to technology across the U.S. and to harness its power to create change in communities across the world. Her work also explores global and domestic broadband deployment and internet governance issues. She is an expert on the intersection of race, wealth, and technology within the context of civic engagement, criminal justice, and economic development. She has a forthcoming book on the topic, Digitally Invisible: How the Internet is Creating the New Underclass (Brookings Press, 2021). Dr. Turner Lee comes to Brookings from the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), a national non-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving equal opportunity and civil rights in the mass media, telecommunications, and broadband industries. Prior to joining MMTC, Dr. Turner Lee was vice president and the first director of the Media and Technology Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the nation’s leading think tank on issues related to African Americans and other people of color. Dr. Turner Lee graduated from Colgate University magna cum laude and has a M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University. She also holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Illinois-Chicago. Dr. Turner Lee also serves as a Vice Chair of the Federal Communications Commission’s Communications Equity and Diversity Council.
Shalin Jyotishi is a Senior Analyst for Education and Labor at New America and Fellow at the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the World Economic Forum. He is also a Visiting Scholar at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Shalin’s expertise centers on issues where higher education and the workforce meet technological innovation and innovation policy. Shalin serves or served on advisory boards for the U.S. National Science Foundation, MIT Science Policy Review, the International Economic Development Council, the United Nations, the American Enterprise Institute, George Washington University’s Institute for Public Policy, and was a University Innovation Fellow at Stanford University. His work has appeared in Forbes, NPR, Financial Times, Morning Consult, Chronicle of Higher Education, RealClearEducation, and IndustryWeek, and has spoken before the United Nations, OECD, U.S. National Academies, World Bank, and National Academy of Inventors.
Dr. John Piorkowski serves as the Chief Artificial Intelligence Architect and Applied Information Sciences Branch Head within the Asymmetric Operations Sector at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. In these roles, he provides technical oversight and technical staff management for a multitude of national security and healthcare efforts. Under Dr. Piorkowski’s direction, staff in the Applied Information Science Branch are leading research in the areas of machine learning, cloud computing, and advanced visualization with government and open-source data. Dr. Piorkowski also serves as the chair for the artificial intelligence and co-chair for the data science programs in the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. As chair, he provides guidance on strategic direction, to include strategies for excellence in curriculum design and faculty quality. As an adjunct faculty member, he teaches courses in social media analytics and artificial intelligence. Additional research interests include applying system engineering techniques towards the creation of artificial intelligence systems. Dr. Piorkowski received a B.S. in electrical engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, an M.S. in electrical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in information systems from UMBC.