Sign in

Owen J. Daniels

@ojdaniels.bsky.social
401 followers 828 following 35 posts

Writing on AI, security, & democracy. Associate Director of Analysis & Andrew W. Marshall Fellow at CSET. Probably behind deadline. Working on a book on AI and military affairs for Polity Press. cset.georgetown.edu/staff/owen-dani…

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
Emerging Technology Observatory @emergingtechobs.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
@ojdaniels.bsky.social, @jessicaji.bsky.social, @jacob-feldgoise.bsky.social, and @alicrawford.bsky.social weigh in on: • Open questions raised by the Plan • Security-related recommendations • Export controls • Workforce priorities
111
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
Foreign Affairs @foreignaffairs.com · 25/07/2025
“If Washington’s new AI strategy does not adequately account for open models, American AI companies, despite their world-leading models, will risk ceding international AI influence to China,” write @ojdaniels.bsky.social and @hannadohmen.bsky.social.
foreignaffairs.com
China’s Overlooked AI Strategy
Beijing is using soft power to gain global dominance.
185
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
CSET @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
The new AI Action Plan touts the strategic importance of open models. That's not news to China, where developers like DeepSeek have made the PRC the leader in open-weights AI. In @foreignaffairs.com, CSET's @ojdaniels.bsky.social & @hannadohmen.bsky.social explain how the U.S. can respond.
141
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
Dewey Murdick @deweyam.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
I’m proud to share @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social’s Annual Report! From Congressional testimony and groundbreaking research to essential data tools & translations, our team continues to shape critical emerging tech policy conversations. Grateful to everyone who makes this work possible.
131
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
Dewey Murdick @deweyam.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
As AI continues to reshape our world, CSET remains committed to providing data-driven analysis on the security implications of emerging technologies. Read our full response: cset.georgetown.edu/publication/...
cset.georgetown.edu
CSET's Recommendations for an AI Action Plan | Center for Security and Emerging Technology
In response to the Office of Science and Technology Policy's request for input on an AI Action Plan, CSET provides key recommendations for advancing AI research, ensuring U.S. competitiveness, and max...
011
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
Dewey Murdick @deweyam.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
The future of AI leadership requires thoughtful policy. @CSETGeorgetown just submitted our response to @NSF's RFI on the Development of an Artificial Intelligence Action Plan. Here's what we recommend: 🧵[1/]
155
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Mia Hoffmann and Owen J. Daniels from Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology say Europe's apparent shift on AI policy could change the global landscape for AI governance. www.techpolicy.press/out-of-balan...
techpolicy.press
Out of Balance: What the EU's Strategy Shift Means for the AI Ecosystem | TechPolicy.Press
Mia Hoffmann and Owen J. Daniels from Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology say Europe's movements could change the global landscape.
2213
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
CSET @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
What does the EU's shifting strategy mean for AI? CSET's @miahoffmann.bsky.social & @ojdaniels.bsky.social have a new piece out for @techpolicypress.bsky.social. Read it now 👇
044
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
🇪🇺🤖🐘
020
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
Dewey Murdick @deweyam.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
U.S. AI firms, take note! An op-ed by @sambresnick.bsky.social and @colemcfaul.bsky.social in @barrons.com argues that China's "good enough" AI strategy (think DeepSeek) could disrupt the market. It's about affordable tech. Huawei playbook 2.0? Open-source Chinese models are closing the gap, fast.
153
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Are definitional clarifications dramatically boring? Yes. Are they policy relevant? Also yes. Some thoughts on conflating AI governance, safety, & regulation, informed by @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social work. TLDR: regulation !=safety safety != "hand-wringing" www.linkedin.com/pulse/some-t...
linkedin.com
Some Thoughts on AI Terminology: Safety and Regulation
A persistent challenge in the artificial intelligence policy space is agreement—or lack thereof—around terminology. Sometimes, this is due to the challenge of nailing down precise terms for evolving c...
031
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
CSET @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
📅Webinar today📅 At 3pm ET today, February 24, join AllaSeiffert of AWS, CSET’s @moschinski.bsky.social, and Elizabeth Laird of @cendemtech.bsky.social for a discussion on how the U.S. government uses and acquires AI talent and tools. cset.georgetown.edu/event/how-th...
cset.georgetown.edu
How the U.S. Government Hires, Uses, and Pays for AI Tools and Talent | Center for Security and Emerging Technology
On February 24, join CSET, the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation, and Georgetown Law’s Institute for Technology Law and Policy for a discussion on the federal government's procurement and us...
042
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
CSET @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
It’s been a busy month for AI policy. CSET's @alexfriedland.bsky.social recapped everything you need to know: 1️⃣ Trump’s AI strategy 2️⃣ The Paris AI Summit 3️⃣ OpenAI’s releases and the roadmap to GPT-5 4️⃣ Sifting through the DeepSeek implications And much more! cset.georgetown.edu/newsletter/f...
cset.georgetown.edu
U.S. AI policy in Trump’s first month — VP Vance lays out AI plan at Paris summit, workforce cuts hit science and AI staff, Trump’s AI EO, an “America First Trade Policy,” and Stargate | Center for Se...
Plus: The DeepSeek frenzy — sorting through the takeaways, and OpenAI looks to stay top dog with new product releases and a tease of GPT-5
011
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
DeepResearch prompt: "'The End of History and the Last Man' but make it AI"
010
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
I've left a lot out: the profit opportunities and risks of increasingly agentic systems got a lot of air; emerging research on scheming, sabotage, and survival instincts of LLMs and frontier models was prominent; and practical ethics policy ideas abounded. Looking forward to sharing more ideas soon
020
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Across the risk spectrum, the question arose time and again: where do we actually need AI solutions? Is it actually helpful to have AI to try to help us find common ground around political disagreements, for example? Do we want more tech in our democratic processes? www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
AI can help humans find common ground in democratic deliberation
Finding agreement through a free exchange of views is often difficult. Collective deliberation can be slow, difficult to scale, and unequally attentive to different voices. In this study, we trained a...
120
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
France’s announcement at the summit that it was tapping its nuclear power industry for data centers grabbed headlines, but nuclear power is not necessarily a panacea for all of AI’s energy issues. It remains a globally significant space to watch. thebulletin.org/2024/12/ai-g...
thebulletin.org
AI goes nuclear
Big tech is turning to old reactors (and new ones) to power the energy-hungry data centers that artificial intelligence systems need. But the downsides of nuclear power—like potential nuclear weapons ...
120
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Environmental and energy concerns will only continue to grow with scaling, and rightfully earned much discussion. Even with model innovation’s like DeepSeek R1, which is cheaper and more efficient to train, consumption for inference will remain high.
100
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
The AISIs have different structures and stakeholders and are attuned to particular research ecosystems, meaning they're not 1-1 matches from one nation to the next, but they can still facilitate exchange. They'll obviously face some geopolitical headwinds amid tech competition.
100
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Despite disappointment at executive messaging, the AI Safety Institutes leading safety work at the national level could be ideal vehicles for developing and disseminating testing, evaluation, and safety best practices. Saw some impressive presentations at side events www.aisi.gov.uk/work/safety-...
aisi.gov.uk
Safety cases at AISI | AISI Work
As a complement to our empirical evaluations of frontier AI models, AISI is planning a series of collaborations and research projects sketching safety cases for more advanced models than exist today, ...
100
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
JD Vance's comments on Europe's "excessive regulation" were well covered, but EC Pres von der Leyen and Macron also championed getting out of the private sector's way. My colleague @miahoffmann.bsky.social wrote a thread about why this attitude could be troubling for Europe bsky.app/profile/miah...
110
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
A few thoughts on the outcomes of the AI Action Summit in Paris. The summit laid out some grand goals for AI governance (and covered them at length in the civil society portion), but the government-led portion of the summit was largely about AI enthusiasm. www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-act...
linkedin.com
The AI Action Summit: Some Perspective on Paris
The recently concluded AI Action Summit in Paris, which comprised civil society and official government meetings, commenced last week with some ambitious goals. As the Center for Security and Emerging...
131
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
Mia Hoffmann @miahoffmann.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
There have been a ton of AI policy developments coming out of the EU these past weeks, but one deeply concerning one is the withdrawal of the AI Liability Directive (AILD) by the European Commission. Here’s why:
133
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Great, thought-provoking discussion and panels at AI Safety Connect in Paris today. How various national iterations of AI safety institutes cooperate (or don’t) in the year ahead will be a major area to watch.
010
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
Mina Narayanan @minanrn.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
@miahoffmann.bsky.social , @ojdaniels.bsky.social, and I wrote a piece on key AI governance areas to watch in 2025 with the upcoming AI Action Summit in mind. Check it out here! thebulletin.org/2025/02/will...
thebulletin.org
Will the Paris artificial intelligence summit set a unified approach to AI governance—or just be another conference?
AI innovations and governments’ preferences can make international consensus on governance at the Paris Summit challenging.
053
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
CSET @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Read their piece for @thebulletin.org: thebulletin.org/2025/02/will...
thebulletin.org
Will the Paris artificial intelligence summit set a unified approach to AI governance—or just be another conference?
AI innovations and governments’ preferences can make international consensus on governance at the Paris Summit challenging.
021
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
CSET @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Next week, Paris will host world leaders, experts, and CEOs of some of the biggest AI developers at the #AIActionSummit. Whether they can agree on a unified approach to AI governance remains to be seen, write @miahoffmann.bsky.social, @minanrn.bsky.social, and @ojdaniels.bsky.social.
161
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
They also fail to advance progress on more ambitious goals, like safety measures, energy efficiency, or labor standards in data supply-chains. Legislators need to think more on how governments and firms can ensure voluntary steps entail real, significant investments toward harnessing AI responsibly.
000
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Last but not least, voluntary commitments: voluntary measures that simply reframe business practices as governance risk coming off as participation trophies.
100
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
The EU AI Act has inspired some of this state legislation and is a global role model. As provisions go into enforcement imminently, it may serve as a role model for enforcing, not just developing, legislation
100
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Similarly, understanding the strengths (existence) and limitations (compliance challenges and scope) of the “patchwork quilt” of emerging state-level governance mechanisms in the U.S. will be important
100
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Next, what the new U.S. approach looks like will also be important. Whether the new admin keeps safety and governance measures, eg the U.S. AI Safety Institute, may point the way.
100
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
These are challenges international summit meetings will continue to struggle to resolve. Acknowledging the strategic ambiguity of governance and sharing specific best practices on governance may be more productive for making progress on various regulations, standards, or voluntary commitments.
100
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
A key question will be how key actors in the AI ecosystem interpret governance. Governments with different approaches to regulating private sectors may not agree on a single regulatory approach and companies have incentives to understand AI governance in line with their business interests.
100
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
With the government portion of the AI Action Summit next week, @minanrn.bsky.social, @miahoffmann.bsky.social and I wrote for @thebulletin.org about some key AI governance questions for the year ahead thebulletin.org/2025/02/will...
thebulletin.org
Will the Paris artificial intelligence summit set a unified approach to AI governance—or just be another conference?
AI innovations and governments’ preferences can make international consensus on governance at the Paris Summit challenging.
184
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Kicking off at #IASEAI in Paris. Yoshua Bengio is discussing how to make safe and controllable agents
020
Reposted by Owen J. Daniels
CSET @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
💡 How can we improve AI safety? Start with standardized incident reporting. Our new publication outlines key components to guide consistent, comprehensive AI documentation ⬇️ cset.georgetown.edu/publication/...
cset.georgetown.edu
AI Incidents: Key Components for a Mandatory Reporting Regime | Center for Security and Emerging Technology
This follow-up report builds on the foundational framework presented in the March 2024 CSET issue brief, “An Argument for Hybrid AI Incident Reporting,” by identifying key components of AI incidents ...
011
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
This will probably grab a lot of airtime next week at the AI Action Summit and its side events in Paris. Will have some blog words incoming. In the meantime, most of us at @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social are still parsing the last week's developments bsky.app/starter-pack...
020
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
In sum, this is notable news, not a Sputnik moment 1) China isn't lagging as far behind leading US firms as some thought 2) open-source remains a policy issue to watch, likely on natsec grounds 3) the "sweeping assumptions on tech competition" lifecycle is v short www.chinatalk.media/p/deepseek-a...
chinatalk.media
DeepSeek and the Future of AI Competition with Miles Brundage
terrible takes can't stand uncorrected
110
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
The development also doesn't diminish the importance of compute. But it's an important reminder of the possibilities for less compute reliant innovation cset.georgetown.edu/publication/...
cset.georgetown.edu
"The Main Resource is the Human" | Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Progress in artificial intelligence (AI) depends on talented researchers, well-designed algorithms, quality datasets, and powerful hardware. The relative importance of these factors is often debated, ...
120
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
This doesn't mean controls will/are not slowing China's progress. Controls lag from the time they're implemented, so it's too soon to say that R1 shows that the controls don't work. Some in industry feel it highlights their continuing significance darioamodei.com/on-deepseek-...
darioamodei.com
Dario Amodei — On DeepSeek and Export Controls
On DeepSeek and Export Controls
110
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
This is partially by design: US export controls aim to slow down PRC leading-edge compute access, but incentivizing lower compute innovations in China was always a risk. See @hannadohmen.bsky.social and @jacob-feldgoise.bsky.social in @foreignaffairs.com www.foreignaffairs.com/china/limits...
foreignaffairs.com
The Limits of the China Chip Ban
Washington’s export controls could end up helping Beijing.
163
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
CSETers @jackcorrigan.bsky.social and @sambresnick.bsky.social wrote for @newsweek.com on how Stargate and DeepSeek show the divergent approaches the US & China are taking toward advanced models. The U.S. big bet is on compute; the PRC is necessarily lower compute www.newsweek.com/does-chinas-...
newsweek.com
Does China's DeepSeek Mean U.S. AI Is Sunk? | Opinion
While new AI models often generate buzz, R1's release is especially notable in light of the U.S. government's recent efforts to curtail China's AI ambitions.
151
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
A few thoughts from me and the @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social hivemind on developments over the last week (Stargate, DeepSeek, etc.). These events aren't necessarily surprising from an analytical lens, but they certainly seem to have caught markets and the media off guard.
2124
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
The @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social team is unsurprisingly busy this week...check out all of our insights on DeepSeek, Stargate, and more go.bsky.app/5AWz4Ht
030
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Zeitgeisty technology debates are more "interesting" compared to more prosaic conversations about mass, adaptation, & decisiveness. I think it's also taken some time to rebuild this intellectual muscle after Iraq/Afghan where decisiveness was trickier to conceptualize and tech asymmetry was obvious
050
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Marshall & the ONA crowd saw the limitations of the precision RMA in the Gulf, but the "lifting the fog of war" people already had a bone to run with. Have found it useful to separate out "the" RMA—usually refers to precision—from the broader historical RMA framework. csbaonline.org/research/pub...
csbaonline.org
The Maturing Revolution in Military Affairs | CSBA
CSBA is an independent, non-partisan policy research institute established to promote innovative thinking and debate about national security strategy and investment options.
140
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Definitely. Krepinevich's framework for RMA components (tech, military applications, operational concepts, organizational changes) is helpful. Human factors are slowest to develop; concepts are hard to assess unclass, and new units take time/experimentation to develop csbaonline.org/research/pub...
csbaonline.org
The Military-Technical Revolution: A Preliminary Assessment | CSBA
CSBA is an independent, non-partisan policy research institute established to promote innovative thinking and debate about national security strategy and investment options.
140
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Fair to acknowledge that proliferating cheaper capabilities are evolving familiar, difficult challenges for the force, rather than creating wholly new ones (article misses that nuance). The "we've seen it all before" crowd isn't always helpful, but counterbalances the "new=revolutionary" crowd.
010
Owen J. Daniels @ojdaniels.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
What Will the Green Transition Mean for a Divided World? I share some thoughts with @stimsoncenter.bsky.social roundtable participants on how geopolitics is shaping the green transition. On tech and military competition: it's a dual-use world and it affects us all inkstickmedia.com/what-will-th...
inkstickmedia.com
What Will the Green Transition Mean for a Divided World?
Experts discuss how climate change and the green transition could impact global politics in a world increasingly beset by divisions.
000