Tim Hwang Governments probably don’t need a Minister of AI
0Tim Hwang Governments probably don’t need a Minister of AI.
As machine learning-fueled tech touches every industry, new job titles are becoming more common. IPsoft has a chief cognitive officer, and Autodesk hires conversational engineers. But Tim Hwang has those beat: He’s director of the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund, an initiative based at Harvard and MIT that doles out money to AI projects for the public good. The $27 million fund was created in January and is backed by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman.
For two years prior to that, he led AI and ML efforts for Google’s public policy arm. He’s worked with groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Data and Society, and the Institute for the Future. In 2011 The Globe and Mail named Hwang one of a dozen people changing philanthropy, alongside Bill Gates and George Soros.
In his free time, Hwang has fun writing about a range of topics, from the impact of automation to dank memes. Last week, Hwang released his latest creation, a collection of essays by academic analyzing images of Mark Zuckerberg, from an awkward hug with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to a deep dive into some of his old profile photos.
VentureBeat spoke with Hwang about his many job titles, the portions of AI he thinks are underappreciated, and whether governments should consider the appointment of a Minister of Artificial Intelligence (TL;DR: Probably not).