Terah Lyons

Biography

Terah Lyons is the founding Executive Director of the Partnership on AI, a multistakeholder nonprofit initiative focused on advancing the benefits and addressing the challenges of machine intelligence founded by Amazon, Apple, DeepMind, Facebook, Google, IMB, and Microsoft. She is a former Policy Advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and a Mozilla Foundation Technology Policy Fellow. In her capacity at the White House, Terah led a policy portfolio in the Obama Administration focused on machine intelligence, including AI, robotics, and intelligent transportation systems. In her work at OSTP, she helped establish and direct the White House Future of Artificial Intelligence Initiative, oversaw robotics policy and regulatory matters, led the Administration’s work from the White House on civil and commercial unmanned aircraft systems/drone integration into the U.S. airspace system, and advised on Federal automated vehicles policy. She also advised on issues related to diversity and inclusion in the technology industry and entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Prior to her work at the White House, Terah was a Fellow with the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences based in Cape Town, South Africa. She previously worked with David Gergen at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Center for Public Leadership examining leadership and U.S. politics, and with Amy Kaslow working to chronicle domestic and international economic reconstruction, poverty, and contemporary conflict and genocide. She is a graduate of Harvard University.