Dan Ho’s California Senate testimony and scholarship were discussed by CalMatters in “If California government wants to use AI, it will have to follow these new rules”. https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2024/03/california-ai-purchasing-guidelines/.

Fear of generative AI algorithms has been exaggerated, said Stanford University Law School professor Daniel Ho, who helped train government employees tasked with buying AI tools following the passage of a U.S. Senate bill that requires government officials with the power to sign contracts participate in training about AI. Ho coauthored a 2016 report that found that roughly half of AI used by federal government agencies comes from private businesses.

He told a California Senate committee last month that he thinks effective policy should require AI companies to report adverse events just like companies are required to report cybersecurity attacks and personal data breaches. He notes that fear of large language models making biological weapons was recently debunked, an incident that demonstrates that the government cannot effectively regulate AI if state employees don’t understand AI.