Water, Electricity, Gas, Artificial Intelligence: Insights on the Inevitability of AI from Policy Advisor Ami Fields-Meyer

Are We There Yet?

Imagine AI as a public utility—what would that look like? This episode, Sonja and Jamie ask: What are the hidden societal costs of broad AI adoption? How can we mitigate the implicit bias inherent in the creation of AI? And why are tech companies so interested in universal basic income, anyway?

Their guest is Ami Fields-Meyer, a political strategist and former policy advisor in the Biden-Harris administration, who worked on the creation of the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. This fascinating and far-reaching discussion touches on whether and how to make AI accessible to society’s most underserved people; how governments, from local to federal, each play a unique role in ensuring an equitable rollout of this new technology; and what lessons can be learned from historical rapid adoption of private-sector products before we knew all the externalities (think asbestos). Will our obsession with efficiency and convenience override the needs of our most vulnerable? As AI continues to take up most of the oxygen in the room, this comprehensive conversation is as timely as it is crucial.