Mignon Clyburn Named to Artificial Intelligence Commission

Former FCC commissioner and chair, Mignon Clyburn, has been tapped to join tech execs, academics, national security officials and others on a new National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, according to the congress member who chose her, House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.).

Clyburn joins representatives from Amazon, Google, Oracle and Microsoft on the committee, which was created by the National Defense Authorization Act and charged with reviewing the impact on national security on advances in AI, artificial learning and related fields.

The commission has to produce a report to the White House by August.

According to Inside Defense, the commission will also feature one sitting senator, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), appointed by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.).

In addition to her time on the FCC, Clyburn has been a state utility regulator and a journalist. Her father, James Clyburn, is a representative from South Carolina, assistant leader and the third ranking member of his party in the House of Representatives.

Clyburn's term had expired last year, but she could have served until her replacement, Geoffrey Starks had been confirmed by the Senate, or until the end of the last congressional session, whichever came first. As it turned out, they happened at about the same time and only a little over a week ago.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.