Jennifer Chayes, professor and dean of the UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society, has been recognized by Politico as one the top 20 most influential players in California tech. The announcement was made at an April 8 reception in San Francisco that gathered policymakers, business leaders and tech entrepreneurs.
Chayes was included in the “influencers” category, along with her co-leads of the Joint California Policy Working Group on AI Frontier Models: Fei-Fei Li at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“When they were tasked last year by [Governor] Newsom to produce a roadmap on how best to regulate the rapidly expanding AI industry, their efforts quickly set the agenda in the technology’s home state,” said reporter Chase DiFeliciantonio in Politico.
Last month, Chayes, Li, and Cuéllar provided a draft report on their findings related to AI frontier models and requested feedback from a variety of disciplines and sectors for the final report, expected to be released by June. The report aims to help provide a framework for policymaking on this rapidly evolving technology, enabling innovation while establishing appropriate strategies to reduce potential risks. It surveys AI research representing multiple disciplines to derive policy principles that can inform how California approaches the use, assessment and governance of frontier AI.
“California has a critical window of opportunity to advance the AI innovation ecosystem and develop governance structures in ways that benefit communities and broader society,” said Chayes.