In the two years since Arati Prabhakar was appointed director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, she has set the United States on a course toward regulating artificial intelligence. The IEEE Fellow advised U.S. President Joe Biden in writing the executive order he issued to accomplish this goal just six months after she began her new role in 2022.
Prabhakar is the first woman and the first person of color to serve as OSTP director, breaking through the glass ceiling at various agencies. She was the first woman to lead the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
How did she discover her passion for electrical engineering?
Prabhakar, born in India and raised in Texas, pursued a STEM career despite classmates suggesting women shouldn’t work in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. “Them saying that just made me want to pursue it more,” she recalls. Her parents, who wished for her to become a doctor, supported her engineering ambitions.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1979 from Texas Tech University, she continued her education at Caltech, graduating with a master’s in EE in 1980 and a doctorate in applied physics in 1984. Her doctoral thesis focused on deep-level defects in semiconductors.
What led her to public service?
Initially, working in the public sector wasn’t on her radar. It wasn’t until she became a DARPA program manager in 1986 that she understood the impact she could have as a government official. “What I have come to love about [public service] is the opportunity to shape policies at a scale that is really unparalleled,” she states.
In 2019, she co-founded Actuate, a nonprofit aimed at addressing climate change, data privacy, and healthcare access.
How is she leading AI regulation worldwide?
When Biden asked if Prabhakar would take the OSTP job, she immediately accepted. “I was so excited to work for the president because he sees science and technology as a necessary part of creating a bright future for the country,” she says.
A month after she took office, the generative AI program ChatGPT launched, bringing AI into the spotlight. Regulating AI became a priority for the Biden administration due to its rapid development and potential risks.
Prabhakar led the creation of Biden’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, signed on October 30, 2022. This order outlines goals such as protecting consumers and their privacy from AI systems.
“The executive order is possibly the most important accomplishment in relation to AI,” Prabhakar asserts. “It mobilizes the executive branch and recognizes that such systems have safety and security risks while enabling immense opportunities.”
In addition, the U.S. spearheaded a U.N. resolution to make AI regulation an international priority, adopted in March, which seeks to use AI to advance the U.N.’s sustainable development goals.
“There’s much more to be done,” Prabhakar concludes, “but I’m really happy to see what the president has accomplished and proud to have contributed.”
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