The Good Robot podcast: the EU AI Act part 2, with Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West from AI NOW

by The Good Robot Podcast

02 October 2024

The EU AI Act part 2, with Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West from AI NOW

In the second instalment of our EU AI Act series we talk to Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West, the Co-Directors of the AI Now Institute, a leading policy thinktank based in New York. Amba and Sarah talk about why policy narratives matter, why it’s actually fake news that AI is moving too fast for regulation to follow, and why innovation versus regulation is a lazy and outdated maxim. Meanwhile, we chip in with some weird comments about why kitchen whisks are awesome, and why getting inundated by emails is the present day equivalent of somebody badgering your cows in the 1800s. Don’t forget to check out our first instalment of the EU AI Act series with Daniel Leufer and Caterina Daniels from Access Now, which is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or any of your other favourite podcasting platforms.

Note: This episode was recorded back in January 2024.

Listen to the episode here:

Amba Kak is the Co-Director of the AI Now Institute. She has spent the last fifteen years designing and advocating for technology policy in the public interest, ranging from network neutrality to privacy to algorithmic accountability, across government, industry, and civil society – and in many parts of the world. Amba brings this experience to her current role co-leading AI Now, a US-based research institute where she leads on advancing diagnosis and actionable policy recommendations to tackle concerns with artificial intelligence and concentrated power. Amba recently completed her term as Senior Advisor on AI at the Federal Trade Commission. Prior to AI Now, she was Global Policy Advisor at Mozilla; and also previously served as legal advisor to India’s telecommunications regulator (TRAI) on net-neutrality rules. She was also selected as one of TIME Magazine’s Influential People in AI for 2024.

Sarah Myers West is the Co-Director of the AI Now Institute. Sarah has spent the last fifteen years interrogating the role of technology companies and their emergence as powerful political actors on the front lines of international governance. Sarah brings this depth of expertise to policymaking in her current role co-directing AI Now, with a focus on addressing the market incentives and infrastructures that shape tech’s role in society at large and ensuring it serves the interests of the public. Her forthcoming book, Tracing Code (University of California Press) draws on years of historical and social science research to examine the origins of data capitalism and commercial surveillance. Sarah’s award-winning research is featured in leading academic journals and prominent media platforms including the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the Financial Times, Nature and the Wall Street Journal. She regularly advises members of Congress, the White House, European Commission, UK Government, Consumer Financial Protection Board and other US and international regulatory agencies and the City of New York, and has testified before Congress on issues including artificial intelligence, competition and data privacy. She recently completed a term as a Senior Advisor on AI at the Federal Trade Commission, where she advised the Agency on the role of artificial intelligence in shaping the economy by working on competition and consumer protection matters.

You can find the episode reading list and transcript here.

About The Good Robot Podcast

Dr Eleanor Drage and Dr Kerry Mackereth are Research Associates at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, where they work on the Mercator-Stiflung funded project on Desirable Digitalisation. Previously, they were Christina Gaw Postdoctoral Researchers in Gender and Technology at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies. During the COVID-19 pandemic they decided to co-found The Good Robot Podcast to explore the many complex intersections between gender, feminism and technology.