Neil Chilson is the Head of AI Policy at the Abundance Institute, where he works to restore optimism and sense of adventure to U.S. cultural and policy discussions about technology.

Neil is a lawyer, computer scientist, and author of the book “Getting Out of Control: Emergent Leadership in a Complex World.” He is the first known human to file AI-generated comments on behalf of AI bots in a federal regulatory proceeding. Neil previously led tech policy and related grant-making at philanthropic community Stand Together. Before that, Neil served as the Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Commission, where he focused on the economics of privacy and blockchain-related issues. He also was as an attorney advisor to Acting FTC Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen. In both roles he advised Chairman Ohlhausen and worked with staff on nearly every major technology-related case, report, workshop, or other FTC proceeding.