Meet Congressional Innovation Fellow Jason Liang, who will be working with Representative Don Beyer (D-VA-08). Within Beyer’s office, Jason will focus on matters of artificial intelligence in the realm of cybersecurity, automation & the future of work, use & ethics, and data privacy.
Read about Jason’s motivations for joining TechCongress and his aspirations for the future in his blog here:
The story of my parents sounds like the classic story of the American dream: two immigrants arriving from China with nothing but the clothes on their backs, the suitcases in their hands, and the determination to succeed. Through hard work, they were able to join the middle class, buy a house, and send my brother and I to college. This version of the story, however, conceals the advantages my parents had, as they had arrived in America with college degrees, no debt, and in good health.
Americans seem to be more pessimistic about the future than ever before, and a core reason for this is the belief that the American dream is out of reach. Many Americans, of all ethnicities, in every state, find themselves unable to achieve their dreams because they lack the foundation my parents had (a solid education, financial security, and their health) – a foundation that should be a fundamental American right.
However, there is hope for the future. I believe that technology (specifically artificial intelligence) can provide this foundation and help all Americans achieve their American dream–as long as it is implemented with civic-centered goals in mind. Imagine if every American had fast and reliable access to the internet, so that every child could receive a first-class education with the help of a personalized AI tutor that aids their teachers, and could do science experiments using mixed reality glasses in lieu of physical labs that may be hard to come by for some schools. Imagine if every American had access to world-class healthcare given by doctors and nurses using AI assistants to serve their patients more accurately, efficiently, and cheaply.
But building this future requires intentionality - because if not built with civic-centered values and goals in mind, technology will continue to exacerbate divisions and pre-existing inequalities. It is up to us as Americans to choose what values we want technology to embody, as ultimately it is humans who guide and shape the technologies we create and use, and not the other way around (at least before our AGI overlords take over).
While working with U.S. government agencies at Scale AI, I saw the impact that civic-centered AI solutions could have. One example was when we created a damage detection model for Ukrainian cities that helped humanitarian organizations prioritize aid. My time at Scale also taught me that data is the single most influential factor in AI decision making programs, and that we need to be intentional so that human biases do not creep into the data used to train algorithms for credit scoring, facial recognition, large language models, or other applications.
To create a future where the American dream is attainable by all, we need to build more civic-centered technology and AI solutions that enable every American to begin with the same foundation my parents had. The First Branch plays a critical role in achieving this goal through investment and legislation, and I’m excited to join TechCongress as a Congressional Innovation Fellow to serve on Capitol Hill and help make this vision a reality.