Dr. Asim Zia leads pre-conference workshop at ASPA Section for Complexity and Network Studies Meeting: "Advancing Public Service Through Big Data and AI."

Dr. Asim Zia, Co-Leader of the BREE Integrated Assessment Team, organized a workshop titled "Advancing Public Service Through Big Data and AI." The workshop, held on March 7, 2019 in Washington, DC, at the American Society for Public Administration Meeting. The workshop included a panel of experts who discussed the opportunities and challenges posed by “rapidly spreading digital revolution, internet of things, drones and ubiquitous computing. While these new disruptive technologies have led to the widespread diffusion of big data, service delivery, machine learning and AI technologies in the private sector, the public sector agencies are lagging far behind in both regulating the adverse impacts of AI (e.g. strategic spread of fake news and rumors in elections through advertising campaigns in social media) as well as harnessing AI technologies for addressing persistent public sector issues (e.g. social equity, infrastructure resilience, sustainable development, and government accountability).”

The experts included Rob Axtel from George Mason University, Dan Chenok from IBM Global Business Services, David Dornisch from the US Government Accountability Office, Jane Wiseman from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and Bad Wybie from Penn State University.