Policy in Practice: AI Governance W/ Eric Hysen | UC Berkeley Exec Fellowship in Applied Tech Policy

Why It Matters

Effective, flexible AI governance lets governments harness AI benefits quickly while mitigating risks, ensuring public services stay competitive and trustworthy.

Key Takeaways

• AI adoption in government requires structured governance frameworks.
• Five thematic areas each contain five actionable best practices.
• Proper guardrails accelerate innovation, not hinder it in practice.
• Berkeley fellowship enabled rigorous policy testing with interdisciplinary experts.
• Flexible, nimble policy design is essential for fast‑moving AI.

Summary

The video features Eric Hysen, a UC Berkeley Executive Fellowship fellow, examining how governments at all levels adopt and govern artificial intelligence. He asks whether public agencies are monitoring, governing, and evaluating AI use responsibly, and presents his research findings.

Hysen’s work produced a playbook organized around five thematic pillars, each containing five concrete best practices. The core argument is that robust guardrails and responsible use do not slow progress; they actually enable faster, safer innovation within complex bureaucratic systems.

He emphasizes the value of Berkeley’s interdisciplinary community, noting that pressure‑testing ideas with faculty, staff, and students sharpened his policy recommendations. A key quote: “Staying nimble, staying current, and designing flexible policy distinguishes tech policy that creates real value from policy that merely slows things down.”

The takeaway for public officials is clear: adopt structured, adaptable AI governance frameworks now to keep pace with rapid technological change, avoiding regulatory lag and unlocking AI’s potential for public good.

Original Description

Former DHS Chief AI Officer and CIO Eric Hysen shares what he learned studying AI adoption across 66 government jurisdictions, why your mental model of AI is already out of date, and what good tech policy looks like in the future.

Hysen’s practitioner's playbook for public-sector AI governance was developed as part of UC Berkeley's Executive Fellowship in Applied Technology Policy, a groundbreaking partnership between the School of Information and the Goldman School of Public Policy. This video is part of Policy in Practice, a series documenting the research of the 2025 Executive Fellows.