Incubating Artificial intelligence: Regulating Intelligent Cars and Drones in the 21st Century

In February 2016, Google received a letter from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) stating that the artificial intelligence (AI) in the tech giant’s self-driving car could now be considered the “driver” for certain regulatory purposes. This opinion signified a paradigm shift in policy and the first step in what is sure to be a complex and deepening relationship between regulators and artificial intelligence-driven industries.

The early decades of the 21st century will serve as a sandbox for artificial intelligence-based technologies that will transform the global economy and human society. In the 20th century, we saw a similar co-evolution of human invention and policy with mixed results. (The internal combustion and atomic power are two examples of technologies that led to new economic possibilities, but also created new societal dangers.) Integrating transformational technologies of the 20th century into productive components of modern society required a careful reconfiguration of the relationship between machines, infrastructure, institutions, and people. If anything the industries of the 21st century will be an even greater challenge.

On Thursday, March 24, 2016, New America, Future Tense and Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society partnered to discuss the evolving intersection between governance and innovation through the lens of general artificial intelligence and two artificial intelligence-linked technologies: automated vehicles and civilian drones.

Participants included: Hilary M. Cain, Director, Technology and Innovation Policy, Government and Industry Affairs, TOYOTA; David C. Vladeck, Professor of Law, Georgetown; Lisa Ellman, Partner and Co-Chair, Global UAS Practice, Hogan Lovells; and, Corey Owens, Head of Public Policy, DJI. Moderated by Dr. Levi Tillemann, Managing Partner Valence Strategic, ASU Fellow, New America.

Future Tense is a partnership of Arizona State University, New America and Slate.