Ferries are an ideal transit supplement for NYC
Va. Rep Don Beyer, 73, went back to school to learn ins & outs
Great Neck, L.I.: “NYC Ferry touts record ridership for start of year” (April 10) is great news! New ferry services can be implemented more quickly than construction of new subway lines, commuter rail or highways. These can take years or even decades to complete, requiring environmental reviews, planning, design, engineering, real estate acquisition, permits, procurements and construction before reaching beneficial use.
Completing all of the above, along with finding funding for ferry boats, docks and parking with costs in the millions, is easier than finding the billions of dollars for construction of new or extended subway lines, commuter rail or highways. Utilization of ferry boats equipped with fuel-efficient engines can make a positive contribution to air quality
Albany provides State Transportation Operating Assistance (STOA). Ridership on transit service generates yearly federal transportation capital assistance via the Federal Transit Administration Section 15 annual reporting process. Numerous past private ferry operators have come and gone. They could not financially survive without government subsidy. MTA buses, subways, Staten Island Railway and commuter rail, along with the NYC Department of Transportation Staten Island Ferry, are subsidized by a combination of city, state and federal assistance for both capital and operating costs. All new ferry services will require similar subsidies to survive.
Who wouldn’t want to enjoy the fresh air and breeze that only waterborne transportation can provide? Riding a ferry can be less stressful than being on a crowded subway car. Larry Penner
WASHINGTON — Don Beyer’s car dealerships were among the first in the U.S. to set up a website. As a U.S. representative, the Virginia Democrat leads a bipartisan group focused on promoting fusion energy. He reads books about geometry for fun.
So when questions about regulating artificial intelligence emerged, the 73-year-old Beyer took what for him seemed like an obvious step, enrolling at George Mason University to get a master’s degree in machine learning.
In an era when lawmakers and Supreme Court justices sometimes concede they don’t understand emerging technology, Beyer’s journey is an outlier, but it highlights a broader effort by members of Congress to educate themselves about artificial intelligence as they consider laws that would shape its development.
Frightening to some, thrilling to others, baffling to many: Artificial intelligence has been called a transformative technology, a threat to democracy or even an existential risk for humanity. It will fall to members of Congress to figure out how to regulate the industry in a way that encourages its potential benefits while mitigating the worst risks.
But first they have to understand what AI is, and what it isn’t.
“I tend to be an AI optimist,” Beyer (photo) said after a recent afternoon class on George Mason’s campus in suburban Virginia. “We can’t even imagine how different our lives will be in five years, 10 years, 20 years, because of AI . ... There won’t be robots with red eyes coming after us any time soon. But there are other, deeper existential risks that we need to pay attention to.”
Risks like massive job losses in industries made obsolete by AI, programs that retrieve biased or inaccurate results, or deep-fake images, video and audio that could be leveraged for political disinformation, scams or sexual exploitation.
On the other side of the equation, onerous regulations could stymie innovation, leaving the U.S. at a disadvantage as other nations look to harness the power of AI.
Striking the right balance will require input not only from tech companies but also from the industry’s critics, as well as from the industries that AI may transform. While many Americans may have formed their ideas about AI from science fiction movies such as “The Terminator” or “The Matrix,” it’s important that lawmakers have a clear-eyed understanding of the technology, said Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., the chairman of the House’s AI Task Force.
When lawmakers have questions about AI, Obernolte is one of the people they seek out. He studied engineering and applied science at the California Institute of Technology and earned an M.S. in artificial intelligence at UCLA. The California Republican also started his own video game company.
Obernolte said he has been “very pleasantly impressed” with how seriously his colleagues on both sides of the aisle are taking their responsibility to understand AI.
That shouldn’t be surprising, Obernolte said. After all, lawmakers regularly vote on bills that touch on complicated legal, financial, health and scientific subjects. If you think computers are complicated, check out the rules governing Medicaid and Medicare.
Keeping up with the pace of technology has challenged Congress since the steam engine and the cotton gin transformed the nation’s industrial and agricultural sectors. Nuclear power and weaponry is another example of a highly technical subject that lawmakers have had to contend with in recent decades, according to Kenneth Lowande, a University of Michigan political scientist who has studied expertise and how it relates to policy-making in Congress.
Federal lawmakers have created several offices — the Library of Congress, the Congressional Budget Office and so on — to provide resources and specialized input when necessary. They also rely on staff with specific expertise on subject topics, including technology.
Then there’s another, more informal form of education that many members of Congress receive.
“They have interest groups and lobbyists banging down their door to give them briefings,” Lowande said.
Beyer said he has had a lifelong interest in computers and that when AI emerged as a topic of public interest he wanted to know more.
Almost all of his fellow students are decades younger; most don’t seem that fazed when they discover their classmate is a congressman, Beyer said.
He said the classes, which he fits in around his busy congressional schedule, are already paying off.
He’s learned about the development of AI and the challenges facing the field. He said it has helped him understand the possibilities, like improved cancer diagnoses and more efficient supply chains