{"id":32884,"date":"2026-05-09T04:27:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T04:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/32884\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T04:27:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T04:27:27","slug":"inside-dcs-ai-expo-industry-leaders-discuss-same-fears-held-by-many","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/32884\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside DC\u2019s AI expo, industry leaders discuss same fears held by many"},"content":{"rendered":"

An artificial intelligence expo in D.C. is hosting leaders of the industry who are discussing many of the same fears about the technology held by people outside tech circles.<\/p>\n


\n An artificial intelligence expo in D.C. is hosting leaders of the industry.(WTOP\/John Domen)<\/p>\n


\n An artificial intelligence expo in D.C. is hosting leaders of the industry.(WTOP\/John Domen)<\/p>\n

An artificial intelligence expo in D.C. is hosting leaders of the industry who are discussing many of the same fears about the technology held by people outside tech circles.<\/p>\n

The AI+ Expo<\/a> is free for anyone to attend and hosted by a think tank called the Special Competitive Studies Project. It\u2019s filled with tech startups, defense contractors and a wider range of companies using AI in all sorts of ways.<\/p>\n

And one topic of frequent discussion on the many stages and in conference rooms is the impact the technology is having on jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a problem that we need to be taking seriously as a leadership issue,\u201d said Miriam Vogel, president and CEO of Bethesda, Maryland-based EqualAI,<\/a> which focuses on policy and governance of the technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I feel very strongly and something we talk about a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vogel referred to AI as a general purpose tool and said it\u2019s \u201cnot something happening to\u201d people, but something people can engage with in their families and workplaces.<\/p>\n

Arun Gupta, CEO of the NobleReach Foundation,<\/a> a Tysons, Virginia-based nonprofit promoting public service to tech workers, spoke not just about jobs, but about how AI will influence careers.<\/p>\n

He said he believes young people are likely to have four to six careers over their lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat could be startling for some, but I think ultimately, once you get on the other side of it, I think it\u2019s empowering for most,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause they\u2019re the ones that are able to design the career that fits the purpose that they have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brendan Schulman, vice president of policy and government relations at the robotics company Boston Dynamics<\/a>, hopes the expo helps demystify the fanatical perceptions some people have about this technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey imagine that the robot is designed to come in and take their jobs. And that\u2019s a concern that people have had about technology for decades, and not just robots,\u201d Schulman said. \u201cI think it\u2019s particularly felt when it\u2019s a machine that looks like a human.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the ballroom, Atlanta-based company Turnabot<\/a>, talked about the potential far-reaching benefits of its combat robots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe space industry is actually really focused on combat robotics, because with combat robotics, you can design for as long as you want, you can build it as well as you can, but when it goes in the arena, you can\u2019t touch it again,\u201d Turnabot founder and CPO Scott Siegel said. \u201cSo similarly, if you send something to Mars, you can\u2019t touch it once it gets there. It\u2019s got to be able to crash land on its own. It\u2019s got to be able to do whatever its function is. It\u2019s going to encounter things that you probably didn\u2019t plan for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Siegel also tried to calm fears of a robot revolution in which AI takes over.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can get them to do an enormous amount of work very efficiently, but they\u2019re always going to have to have supervision,\u201d Siegel said. \u201cThey\u2019re always going to have to have a person at the helm.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he thinks those who are skeptical should grow more familiar with the technology: \u201cYou should learn how to use (AI), because if you don\u2019t learn how to use it, you\u2019re going to get left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The free expo runs through Saturday and features family-friendly programming.<\/p>\n

Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An artificial intelligence expo in D.C. is hosting leaders of the industry who are discussing many of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,21033,25,10260,382,21034,377,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-32884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-ai-expo","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-job-security","12":"tag-jobs","13":"tag-john-domen","14":"tag-robotics","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}