Q&A With Alumna Leading White House AI Policy Development

Samantha Hubner’s journey from Belmont to creating AI policy in Washington, D.C.

Alumna Samantha Hubner's (political science '16) career path exemplifies the unexpected ways a liberal arts education can unfold. As the Acting Director of AI Policy for the White House Office of Management and Budget, Hubner has helped develop the first-ever governance structures for federal use of artifical intelligance.

But her journey to becoming a technology policy expert began in an unlikely place — as a dancer, where her love for pattern recognition in choreography would eventually translate into a fascination with data analytics and emerging technologies.

Recently, Hubner shared about her transformative years at Belmont, her global adventures that followed and her current work at the intersection of AI policy and national security.

What initially drew you to Belmont and how did Belmont influence your career path? 

I was always an academically engaged student, but I also spent a great deal of time throughout K-12 training, performing and competing in dance. I thought about competing in dance through college, but I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in something more multidisciplinary, I just wasn’t sure what. After meeting the faculty in the Global Honors Program, World Languages and Cultures and Political Science departments, it became obvious Belmont offered the perfect balance of academic rigor and creativity to figure out what career path that would be. 

At Belmont, I fell in love with foreign language study and observing macro trends in political economy. In retrospect, the way that I loved to dissect patterns of choreography and movement as a dancer was indicative of what attracted me to these fields. While at Belmont, Dr. Davon Ferrara’s science inquiry seminars and Dr. Mike Pinter’s mathematical inquiry seminars unlocked new fascinations in cryptography, international security, physics, voting methods and satellite technology. Those fascinations turned out to be quite telling too, and directly spurred my eventual exploration in emerging technologies.

After graduation, what steps did you take to eventually land a policy job in the White House? 

After graduating from Belmont, I prioritized investing in my foreign language proficiencies through immersion. I received the Lumos Travel Award to work with local organizations, such as Le Féminin Pluriel, dedicated to women and youth empowerment in Rabat, Morocco. Then I took a job as an Educational Ambassador in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, China where I lived for over two years. During that time abroad, I also briefly lived in Chalkida, Greece, where I volunteered through Lighthouse Relief as a dance teacher at Camp Ritsona, which was home to refugees of all walks of life.  

While living abroad, I developed key transferable skills that would eventually facilitate my professional transition toward emerging technology and international security policy: adaptability and innovative problem-solving, cultural awareness and cross-cultural communication, as well as grounded confidence and self-awareness when confronted with new and unfamiliar environments. 

I returned to the United States in 2018 and took a job at a data and analytics exchange tech startup. I quickly got my hands dirty with SQL and Python alongside my day-to-day work designing and deploying data collection efforts across the globe. In doing so, I developed a strong affinity for geospatial analysis and applied spatial statistics. I began working closely with the data science team to design new data collection methods and corresponding data products in response to forecasted client demand. Later on in graduate school, I formalized this experience with advanced studies in geospatial intelligence, international security studies and emerging technology policy before helping shape the first-ever governance structures on Federal use of artificial intelligence at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

My time working and volunteering abroad is still a big part of who I am and how I got here, so I still volunteer locally as a U.S. citizenship exam teacher and as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher here in D.C. Even though it is not directly related to my policy work, I find it grounding and helpful to audit my self-awareness and how I communicate through teaching in ESL environments — it absolutely informs how I approach challenging or sensitive negotiations and dialogues throughout the Executive Office of the President.

What are some of the most common AI misconceptions you see?

I think the most common misconception is that AI is a completely new technological capability, though I can certainly understand where that belief comes from. The onset of generative AI really thrust AI technology into the spotlight in 2022, but without providing a ton of context into the ways different types of AI technology have developed and been used prior to 2022. In reality, forms of AI technology have been in use since the late 1950s.   

How do you see AI impacting students impacting the future job market for students?  

To be fair, the impact that AI will have on jobs varies quite a bit depending on the sector. Nonetheless, I’d encourage students of all disciplines to think of AI as a tool — with very real limitations — as opposed to something to fear. 

There’s a fantastic meme going around that, in summary, makes the point that while AI won’t take your job, someone who understands how AI works probably will. And while that may be a tad over simplistic, I do think there’s some truth to it! The more you can understand AI–especially its limitations– the more you can leverage AI to demonstrate your individual value to the field you wish to work in. 

How is the White House balancing AI innovation with security?

Our team at the Office of Management and Budget, within the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer, has issued two critical pieces of guidance this year in responses to two major laws: The AI in Government Act of 2020 and The Advancing American AI Act of 2022. In addition to what these laws required, the guidance— the first of its kind– also draws from the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights’ principles to inform these binding policies.

Issued in March, OMB M-24-10 establishes structures for governance, innovation and risk management for Federal use of AI, particularly for AI use cases within the federal government that impact Americans’ rights or safety. We’re in the process of implementing this memo now, progress for which will be evident to the public toward the end of this calendar year.

Continuing that momentum from OMB M-24-10, OMB M-24-18, Advancing the Responsible Acquisition of Artificial intelligence in Government was issued in September, and focuses on how agencies can leverage federal purchasing power responsibly. Agency acquisition of AI is similar in many respects to the purchase of other types of information technology, but it also presents novel challenges. M-24-18 helps agencies anticipate and address these challenges by issuing requirements and providing recommendations around three strategic goals: managing risk, ensuring cross-functional collaboration, and promoting a competitive AI market with innovative acquisition techniques. 

 Why should data privacy and AI policy standards matter to individuals?

Data is, by and large, the monetized strategic asset that makes the world go round — and not just in terms of AI. It will always be important to be cognizant of where your information is available, and to whom, for a myriad of reasons. Chief among them are personal safety and privacy. It is dangerously easy to take advantage of someone if you have access to their data, especially without their knowledge. 

Beyond personal safety and privacy, for young college students, I’d also point to social media as something to be especially watchful over — both in how you use it and the way it uses you. Have you ever wondered why it's free to create most social media accounts? Your data is extremely valuable, particularly in how it informs targeted advertisements on the platform. 

If you’re ever curious about how your online behaviors are being tracked, I highly recommend downloading your data! For example, if you have a Google Account, within the Home page of your account, go to Privacy & Personalization, and scroll down to Personalized ads > My Ad Center. Google will show you all the labels it has tacked onto you based on your browsing history. It’s very interesting to see how right, and sometimes wrong, these labels are. But it is always important to be aware. You can also download your data from social media platforms. 

Bringing this back to AI, it is critical to reflect on what the rules ought to be for how commercially available data and personally identifiable information is used, especially how it affects individuals. There is an outstanding Request for Information from OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs – Privacy Branch that raises some important questions to that effect here. 

 If you could give advice to your college-age self about preparing for a career in AI and/or government, what would you say?

Be open-minded and try everything that interests you! College can often feel like a bit of a dichotomy. Sometimes, the same people who pressure you to declare a major are also the people telling you, “You’ve got time, you’ll figure it out.” I cannot stress enough that both of these things can be frustratingly and simultaneously true, and for me, it was by trying so many different things that I figured out what it was I really loved and wanted to do, both in terms of a career and in life. 

To this day, I still train in dance. It’s been over a decade since I “retired,” yet I still find ways to prioritize a balance between the intellectual and the creative. And Belmont is a terrific place to figure out what that lifestyle looks like for you.

How do you feel Belmont helped prepare you for your current role?

Being at a small liberal arts school gave me such important exposure to not only different professional pursuits, but different worldviews. One Honors religion class went beyond that of the typical religion courses and dove into the core values of theological discourse. It's one of many examples of how Belmont pushes its students to see more than what’s in front of them. That’s an important skill when you’re working on the frontiers of constantly evolving technologies.

I also deeply appreciated the advocacy of the faculty when it came to elevating their students. My plan of study was considered a bit odd when I first started at Belmont, but by the time I was graduating, I had clearly proved the value proposition of my studies. It made it all the way to the associate provost’s desk, and she spearheaded the effort at Belmont to formalize my plan of study with a whole new major program, the Global Leadership Studies major.

It was — and still is — extremely affirming to see faculty support transform more than just my own professional trajectory. Today, my favorite thing when I come back to visit campus is meeting the current students that are charting their own paths at Belmont through that same major, but tailored to their own plan of study. The unwavering support that I had for my unconventional path at Belmont is always in the back of my mind, even now as I work on policy at the White House.

At the end of the day, I think it all comes back to the incredible impact you can have by leading and living in a way that serves a mission bigger than yourself — whether at work, within your community or just at home with family. Major major shout out to Belmont for continuing to demonstrate such strong values that permeate far beyond our time on campus.