D.C.’s AI Honors Reflect Innovation Breakthroughs — But Also Public Anxiety And Concern

When the Trump administration’s Mehmet Oz spoke to this year’s AI Honors Gala, he referenced what numerous polls have shown: the AI revolution is being met with public skepticism and fear.

“When was the last time you saw a fictional movie where AI was the hero?” Oz, the former TV talk host who is the the administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told the black-tie crowd on Wednesday evening at the Waldorf Astoria in D.C.

“We have a real problem. It’s a PR problem, and I do believe that fiction predates science.”

The second AI Honors Gala is held by the Washington AI Network, founded by Tammy Haddad, and with a long list of major tech companies as sponsors.

As was the case last year, a number of honorees spoke of breakthroughs and innovation. Among the honorees were Nvidia co-founder Chris Malachowsky, who received the Founder’s Education Accelerator Award, recognizing his investment in AI education at the University of Florida; Major General Patrick J. Ellis, who received the AI Leadership in National Defense Award, for his work in AI, operational readiness and national defense; and Katherine (Kathy) Yelick, for her work in computing and machine learning as the first computer scientist to lead Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Some of the speakers, including another honoree, Michele Jawando, recipient of the Civic Technology Leadership Award, talked of the need to ensure that the benefits of the AI revolution are widespread, bringing jobs across income levels and industries.

The Washington AI Network and Morning Consult released a poll this week showing “a clear paradox between use and trust.” Only 16% said that they trust AI to provide accurate information, but around 1/5 and one-quarter have been using it for medical information, taxes and money and legal issues.

The concerns over AI, from the growth of data centers to worries about mass job displacement, was reflected in the remarks by a number of speakers.

The event opened with an address by Gabriele Caccia, the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States, who talked of Pope Leo’s recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, which called for preventing AI from “dominating humanity.”

In the near term, the development of AI has encountered pushback, primarily in the construction of data centers across the country. Kevin O’Leary, Shark Tank‘s Mr. Wonderful, who devoted much of his speech to describing the backlash to his plans for a data center campus in Utah, which he suggested was tied to efforts by China to stifle U.S. growth in the technology.

“There is a dual narrative going on in America right now about the merits of AI,” O’Leary said. “In one camp, we have people that think AI will replace all jobs, and then the robots will eat the babies. That’s a pretty big narrative right now, as you all know. And the other side is what the merits of AI, as a tool, could be, for advancing medical research, democratizing everything we do in education, providing productivity to our economy, and advancing what we do in defense.”

O’Leary then claimed that Chinese actors were behind the pushback to the $15 billion Utah campus, describing the posting of “incorrect information about this whole project.” One of the nonprofits opposing the project, Alliance for a Better Utah, has denied O’Leary’s claims.

O’Leary said that the data centers “are not what they were 20 years ago. They don’t belch smoke. They’re not humming. They don’t use [huge] amounts of water. We don’t need to do that.”

The Trump administration has generally taken a hands off approach to AI development. But this week the president signed an executive order that calls for the creation of a voluntary framework in which AI companies would provide the government with access to new models for a 30-day review period before their release.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), recipient of the Bipartisan Leadership in AI Award along with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), told the crowd, “We also have to acknowledge what the public perception of AI is because most Americans have not seen the benefits.”

Warner’s state is the capital of AI data centers, he noted, and “if we don’t have a policy around electricity, around water use, setbacks, backup power, the already roaring opposition will multiply,” he said. “We have to acknowledge that we made by never putting any guardrails on social media, that is the challenge that AI becomes.”

He added, “If we are going to maximize the incredible benefits of artificial intelligence, we do have to get ahead of these policies because the benefits are still a little bit out there.”

Oz said, “As a scientist, I’m very much influenced by art. We need art to start talking about technology, specifically AI, in a positive way, not because it has to, but because in reality, there are positive and negative elements to this.”

He added, “If AI is used to support our humanity, it’s for good. If it controls our humanity, it’s not. We will decide which of those two will prosper.”