Artificial Intelligence and Waffles (Day 04)

Week one crescendoed with a day of networking, theory, and presentations. Twenty-one Tribe alumni met with the Foreign Policy group this morning to go over our Policy Memo assignments, before we broke bread (waffles) and talked about their jobs. 

I had a fascinating conversation about artificial intelligence (AI) with one attendee who works in the field. He said there’s a far-fetched belief that all cars will be driving themselves in a few years, but that is an unrealistic worry. However, that AI will result in massive job displacement in many of the service industries we rely on today. Carrying your online shopping will be automated cars and drone-to-door delivery, not the UPS man and truck drivers we often see. Ultimately, what oversight should preempt this? We talked about what over or under-regulation might look like.

Our class later took a look into the Millennium Challenge Corporation in relation to its similarly-minded organization, USAID. We highlighted its differences in size, budget, and style of development financing. The MCC takes a hardline approach to aid by giving only to countries meeting a set, quantifiable criteria. This was created during the Bush 2 administration in response to a more subjective USAID aid approach.

To end the day, we presented our first round of policy briefings. This is a two-person assignment in which one team recommends a development or security based solution to current issues facing the United States. My partner and I are “solving” women’s equal political participation in developing countries through a US/UN partnership. Using Rwanda as an example, we argue this is one of the quickest methods to rapid GDP growth (which would result in less requested aid from the US). 

The group is excited to have time off tomorrow. After a week of early metro rides, sleeping in is all that’s on my Google Calendar.

– Caleb T. Rogers ’20