International standards from 1840 to the Age of AI, with Scott Cooper

AI Governance Podcast

This episode of Enzai's AI Governance Podcast features Scott Cooper. Nobody understands the international standardization space better than Scott. An advocate for consumer protection, Scott’s was previously VP for Policy at the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Scott also worked with lawmakers, companies and civil society – including advising the US House of Representatives and the CEO of Hewlett-Packard on consumer protection, governance, and standardization issues. Scott joined Enzai’s Var Shankar to discuss:

- how international standardization can help with many of the challenges that AI governance faces today, from benchmarking to upskilling;

- the origin of American standardization efforts during the 1840s, in the context of steam engine and ship safety;

- how the creation of land grant colleges during the American Civil War helped rapidly train a generation of engineers;

- how the assurance regime for toy safety – which brought together Chinese manufacturers, American retailers, and ISO-accredited testing, inspection and auditing companies – was eventually incorporated into hard law; and

- the implications of AI being accessible via natural language, in any language.