Reasonably Optimistic Where AI will be in a year — and in a decade
12 snips
Apr 1, 2026 
Dean Ball, senior fellow and former White House AI policy advisor, specializes in AI governance and infrastructure. He predicts AI will automate routine computer work and become personal ghost assistants. He forecasts tailored agents, automated transport, faster drug discovery, and more robotics. He discusses who should set guardrails, the role of federal preemption, and binding agents to real identities.
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Using An Agent To Do House Due Diligence
- Dean Ball describes using a coding agent to do home-buying due diligence like pulling permits and satellite topography.
- He contrasts this to a few years ago when custom software for such tasks cost five-figure sums and months to build.
Deploy AI To Discover Practical Safety Guardrails
- Deploy AI to learn what safe guardrails should be because untested prohibition can't reveal practical risks.
- Ball argues experience — even mistakes — is necessary to discover realistic safety practices.
AI Governance Will Emerge From Many Actors
- AI governance will be a complex mix of private, quasi-public, and public actors rather than a single authority.
- Ball expects insurance, common law, philanthropic bodies, and new institutions to jointly create guardrails.