AI and our Federal Government

A Dangerous Union

*This was written over a month ago before the AI moratorium was stripped from the “OBBB” but it’s still worth knowing about the company that has its AI tentacles dug into the government.

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the newest tech revolution that we are square inside of. The advent of the internet changed the world in ways that we can’t even grasp, and here we are on the cusp of something that is arguably much larger.

The creation of generative artificial intelligence is quickly entering every space in our world. It feels like it happened overnight. From something I heard about occasionally to WHAM IT'S EVERYWHERE, seemingly overnight. I'm not even sure the majority of our country would even be able to describe what it does or is capable of, and yet it's being integrated into educational spaces, the science and medical world, all manner of industries, and, of course, the White House. The entire project is concerning, especially when you try to imagine what the future might hold with this incredibly unpredictable and powerful invention.

If I'm honest, it feels foreign and frightening to me. I'm concerned about it for a great number of reasons. What will it do to children and how they conceive of “learning?” Who decides what values and biases get encoded into AI systems that make decisions affecting millions? What are the implications for the American worker and the need for jobs? What happens to shared truth and social cohesion when anyone can create convincing false realities? What is the next step post-AI? What does it usher in? We don’t have the answers to any of these questions - not even the minds who opened this Pandora’s box. But it's here and we need to be aware of this unique power (and IMHO, danger.)

As I mentioned, AI has already descended on the White House and made its way into the “One Big Beautiful Bill” but was thankfully stripped from it. That being said, AI is already embedded in our DoD and the government as a whole. Let’s get into it.