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Michael Kratsios

@michael-kratsios · 20 positions · 0 changes of mind

Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the president's science and technology adviser; previously US chief technology officer and chief operating officer of Scale AI.

Michael Kratsios did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

  1. Our reading

    There is no place where a technologist can work on bigger problems than the US government — not even the biggest technology companies deal with problems of that scale.

    Their wordsI think there is there is um no place where you can work on bigger problems than the US government. Even at the the biggest tech companies in the world, you're never going to be dealing with problems of this of this scale.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 2:08 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 1st of 20 in this recording

    government

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    Whatever the industry, the thing standing between a technology and its market is usually a government rule, which makes policy the lever that unlocks technologies.

    Their wordsno matter what kind of industry you're looking at, there was this government angle where the government's policy actions could be ones that could actually unlock technologies.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 4:10 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 2nd of 20 in this recording

    government

    Interesting

  5. Our reading

    Technology policy is not decided by one or two people in the White House: the decisions are extraordinarily federated across agencies.

    Their wordsthese decisions are extraordinarily federated. There isn't just like one or two people in the White House who decide something.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 4:52 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 3rd of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  7. Our reading

    The United States cannot lead in artificial intelligence with closed models alone: it needs a vibrant open-source ecosystem alongside them.

    Their wordsif the US wants to lead in artificial intelligence, we have to have a vibrant closed and open source ecosystem, and that's the only way they can all work together.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 7:40 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 4th of 20 in this recording

    open sourceAmerica

    Interesting

  9. Our reading

    Washington cannot make good technology policy in a vacuum: without startups and industry saying what they believe, the decisions come out worse.

    Their wordsif if DC is in a vacuum isn't hearing anything from the startup ecosystem or even from big tech ecosystem or even from financial services or all these different industries, we can't make the best decisions.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 7:58 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 5th of 20 in this recording

    startupsAmerica

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    Rules for a technology that reinvents itself every six months must not draw firm red lines, because firm lines ultimately do not work.

    Their wordsthe answer to that really is you don't want to set very firm red lines in the sand because they ultimately don't work.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 10:07 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 6th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  13. Our reading

    The EU AI Act is the cautionary case for regulating early: Europe's language models must obey a rule that was finished before large language models existed.

    Their wordshave to abide by this rule that was written before LLMs were even a thing. And that shows how challenging sort of the the the situation is if you try to set the line too firm to begin with.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 10:48 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 7th of 20 in this recording

    LLMsEurope

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    The tradeoff in cyber-capable models cannot be designed away: the model that can do something nefarious is the same model that hardens the system against it.

    Their wordsthe challenge with a lot of these cyber capable models is the same model that is able to sort of do something nefarious is the same model that can be very valuable in hardening an existing system.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 12:18 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 8th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  17. Our reading

    The biological risk from AI models has been overblown for years: people were shouting about it in 2021 and 2022 and it has not been an issue since.

    Their wordsI think people were sort of like shouting about the bio problem back in '21, '22. Hasn't been an issue for 3 years.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 12:47 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 9th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  19. Our reading

    A state-by-state patchwork of AI rules is something only the biggest technology companies can absorb.

    Their wordsif you create a or allow for the creation of a patchwork of regulations, meaning there's one set of regulations for AI in California, another one in Maryland, another one in Texas. You know, the big tech guys, they can deal with that.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 15:17 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 10th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  21. Our reading

    AI regulation only avoids handing incumbents a moat if it is one national framework that is equally clear and easy for companies of every size.

    Their wordsI think it's all about having regulatory clarity and ease for all sizes of of companies. Um and if we can work with Congress to do something like that, I think that would be that would be the biggest boon for for for startups.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 17:46 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 11th of 20 in this recording

    startups

    Interesting

  23. Our reading

    Technologies are either born free or born in captivity, and the born-free ones — the internet when it started — have to be preserved from new regulation.

    Their wordsborn free technologies are ones where there aren't regulations on the books. Things of like the internet when it just started. And those are the types of technologies you have to preserve.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 19:10 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 12th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  25. Our reading

    Supersonic flight is the most obvious example of technological stagnation there is: we fly slower today than the Concorde did.

    Their wordsI think it's the most obvious sort of like in your face example of technological stagnation. We had the Concorde flying years ago. We're flying slower than we were back then today. Absolute tragedy.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 20:13 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 13th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  27. Our reading

    The postwar settlement for American science is obsolete: the federal share of R&D has inverted, with private money and philanthropy now funding about 70% of it.

    Their wordsOver time that has sort of inverted completely. The private sector plus philanthropy now do about 70% of R&D and the and the government only does about 30.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 28:05 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 14th of 20 in this recording

    governmentAmerica

    Interesting

  29. Our reading

    AI will transform how scientific discovery is done, and within two or three years a working scientist's job will already look dramatically different.

    Their wordsIf you are working on material science, if you are working on pharmaceuticals, if you are working on chemistry, you in 2 3 years or even today are doing your role as a scientist dramatically different because of artificial intelligence.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 29:22 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 15th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  31. Our reading

    Autonomous cloud labs that run the whole loop — hypothesis, experiment, result, next hypothesis — without human intervention are within reach.

    Their wordsThe idea that you can have autonomous cloud labs running experiments on a loop without human intervention, testing hypotheses, running the experiments, seeing the results, creating a new hypothesis, testing it and running it, and ultimately getting to a conclusion, that is in our sights.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 30:51 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 16th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  33. Our reading

    Quantum information science is the technology Washington will care enormously about within five years and does not give enough airtime today.

    Their wordsWell, we discuss it a lot, but I don't think it gets as much airtime as it should, and and that would be that would be quantum information science technology or quantum computing.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 31:49 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 17th of 20 in this recording

    America

    Interesting

  35. Our reading

    Legislating AI is riskier than an executive order, because the next administration can revoke a bad executive order and nobody can revoke a bad law.

    Their wordsThe thing about executive orders, which is a little secret, is when administration changes, you can just revoke the executive order and and start from scratch again. Um when something is a law, you you can't do that.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 34:39 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 18th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  37. Our reading

    Congress should pass a federal preemption law for AI so that fifty states cannot each write their own rules.

    Their wordswe would urge Congress to to be able to pass some sort of some sort of law around around preemption so we don't have this crazy patchwork of all these different states doing all these different things these things on AI.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 35:18 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 19th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  39. Our reading

    Government work is a bureaucratic slog and is still the place where a technologist can have the biggest impact on the country.

    Their wordsI think it can be a slog, it can be bureaucratic, it can be painful, but when the when the outcome actually happens and you deliver the result, there is no place where you can have a bigger impact on on this country.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 38:26 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Michael Kratsios: Inside the White House's AI Strategyyoutube.com 20th of 20 in this recording

    government

    Interesting