This week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced the appointment of 4 new experts to the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee (NAIAC), which advises the President and the White House on a range of issues related to artificial intelligence (AI). 

The committee, launched in 2022, provides recommendations on topics including the current state of U.S. AI competitiveness, the state of science around AI, and AI workforce issues. The committee also is responsible for advice regarding the management and coordination of the initiative itself, including its balance of activities and funding.

“Empowering our nation’s top talent in AI across academia, industry, non-profits and civil society is fundamental to the responsible development and deployment of this generation-defining technology. That’s why NAIAC’s work is so critical to our collaborative effort to mitigate the risks so we can harness the benefits of artificial intelligence,” said Secretary Raimondo. “These new committee members represent some of the best in their field, and I am confident will play an important part in helping NAIAC to meet its mission to provide the expertise and guidance necessary to maintain U.S. global leadership on AI.”

This announcement follows the first 27 appointments to the National AI Advisory Committee in 2022 after its establishment in response to the National AI Initiative Act of 2020. The committee members were nominated by the public as expert leaders from a broad and interdisciplinary range of AI-relevant disciplines from across academia, industry, non-profits and civil society.

The newly appointed members include:

• Aneesh Chopra, Chief Strategy Officer of Arcadia; previously, he served as the first U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Virginia’s Secretary of Technology.
• Christopher Howard, Executive vice president and chief operating officer of ASU; he is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and earned a doctorate in politics as a Rhodes Scholar from the University of Oxford and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
• Angie Cooper, Executive Vice President of Heartland Forward; previously she worked in international and domestic public policy and government affairs for Walmart Stores, Inc., most recently as senior director of global public policy.
• Beth Cobert, former President of the Markle Foundation; previously she served as Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Committee members will serve three-year terms and may serve two consecutive terms at the discretion of the secretary. The Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides administrative support to the committee. For more information on the NAIAC and its responsibilities, visit ai.gov/naiac.