Early in the morning on Friday, Dec. 6, 35 State of California policymakers boarded a shuttle in Sacramento and traveled to the Stanford University campus to attend the 2024 California State Boot Camp on Artificial Intelligence. Their mission for the day: to engage with leading AI scholars from across Stanford and gather insights and ideas to bring back to their work at the Capitol.

Co-hosted by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), and the Stanford Regulation, Evaluation and Governance Lab (RegLab), this one-day workshop covered key topics including foundation model governance, AI’s impact on the state’s education system, and use cases for public-sector AI. Although the event was the first of its kind at Stanford to be offered to legislative staffers at a state level, it builds on momentum HAI has established through a growing portfolio of policymaker education programs, such as the Congressional Boot Camp on AI, a three-day workshop for federal staffers.

“HAI has emerged as a global leader in informing AI governance. We are driving core conversations around the responsible development, application, and regulation of AI through engagements with domestic and international policymakers, multidisciplinary research, and tailored educational programs,” says Elena Cryst, director of policy and society for HAI. Fueled by this momentum, HAI’s policy team is designing new programs to reach online audiences, different levels of government, and more geographies.

From Washington, D.C., to Sacramento to Siem Reap, Cambodia, in 2024 HAI experts participated in programs for policymakers on multiple continents – all with the goal of bringing HAI’s world-class scholars to inform governance efforts worldwide. In each of those locations, as well as through multiple online offerings, HAI’s research and expertise have equipped decision-makers with knowledge about the fundamentals and latest trends in AI that are essential to inform policymaking.

Innovative distance learning programs

Alongside policymakers and regulators, civil servants play a critical role in the AI governance ecosystem. For example, many are helping the government to meet requirements set forth in the Executive Order on AI; yet few resources exist to introduce civil servants to emerging technologies. HAI is meeting this need with two new online courses.

For the past three years, HAI has partnered with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the White House Office of Management and Budget to develop specialized AI training that has reached more than 10,000 registered attendees. The “Artificial Intelligence Training Series for Federal Employees” covers technical foundations, public-sector use cases, and risk mitigation strategies to empower participants to navigate and manage AI in their work.

Riana Pfefferkorn, HAI policy fellow, discusses data privacy law during a 2024 California State Boot Camp session. | Christine Baker

In 2024, HAI increased the number of sessions provided from six to eight, reflecting the rising importance of policy-relevant topics such as training cost-effective large language models and the transformative potential of multimodal foundation models. GSA also expanded access to the training to state and local government employees. More than 3,500 government employees enrolled in the course this year, a record level of participation.

A second online offering, “AI Fundamentals for Public Servants: Opportunities, Risks and Strategies,” developed in collaboration with Stanford Online and Apolitical, brings AI concepts to a more global audience of public servants and has enrolled over 1,700 participants.

“To get new ideas implemented in society requires collaboration between government, industry, and academia, so the tighter we can make those connections, the better,” says HAI Senior Fellow Mykel Kochenderfer, an expert in AI safety and longtime instructor for both the Congressional Boot Camp and GSA programs.

Engaging across the globe

Outside the United States, HAI’s policy team has helped to inform the European Union AI Act, collaborated with the Asia Foundation to pilot a workshop for ASEAN leaders, and hosted a two-part workshop for civil society and technology leaders to explore ways to strengthen the AI ecosystem in the Global South. Those workshops provided an in-depth exploration of frontier AI models’ technical capabilities, their societal impacts, and the regional demand for AI tools and applications; they also offered governance strategies and practical insights attuned to the local context.

Drew Spence, HAI’s policy program manager, says, “There’s a real thirst in policymaking circles for programs that deliver evidence-based insights from academia. We’re not only bringing policymakers to us, but also going to other regions to have that exchange.”

HAI Privacy and Data Policy Fellow Jennifer King explains bias in machine learning during the 2024 Congressional Boot Camp at Stanford. | Christine Baker

Each of HAI’s education programs aims to meet policymakers where they are in terms of understanding AI. Drawing experts from across Stanford’s seven schools, the team can design learning experiences based on the needs of the audience; for example, by convening scholars who are studying the intersections of AI and labor, economics, statistics, medicine, law, or education.

“AI is inherently a multidisciplinary field, and what HAI does well is convening the different disciplines,” says Kochenderfer. “And the value flows in both directions. We can get government up to speed on the technical aspects and key concepts, and through the experience of teaching, we as faculty understand the challenges and priorities better.”

For example, the Congressional Boot Camp provides participants with the opportunity to make new connections with fellow staffers, including those on the other side of the aisle. And questions raised by participants at a range of education programs have given faculty new perspectives to bring to their research.

Looking ahead, HAI’s policy team plans to deepen collaboration with organizations at the state, federal, and international levels and find innovative ways to help policymakers understand the long-term impact of their regulatory efforts.

HAI Senior Fellows and Stanford Professors Dan Ho (left), law and political science, and Christopher Manning (center), linguistics and computer science, participate in a panel discussion. | Courtesy Stanford HAI