Adrianna Tan, Founder, Future Ethics, United States

1. How do you use technology/policy to improve citizens’ lives? Tell us about your role or organisation. 

I was the Director of Product Management at San Francisco Digital Services for the past 5 years. In that role, I helped to make software decisions that changed the way people in San Francisco got vaccine information, applied for permits, or sought help from the City.  

Now, I am the founder of Future Ethics, a product management and AI consulting agency that works with governments and nonprofits.  

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2. What was the most impactful project you worked on this year? 

This year, through my consulting org, I started researching bias in Southeast and East Asian languages in popular AI models. The work combines the two things I’m passionate about: understanding bias in AI, and Southeast Asia. I’m working to publish some of that work so that others can build on it.  

I’ve also started writing my book, “Product for the People”. It’s about centering people in product management in government and nonprofit. 

3. What was one unexpected learning from 2024?  

My political science degree is finally useful. I graduated in 2008, went into the tech industry, and never really used it. But I’ve learned that having 15 years of software experience AND political science training is actually a great thing, right now. It helps me do what I do now: think and write about the impact of artificial intelligence on government and society.  

4. What’s a tool or technique you’re excited to explore in 2025?  

I am unreasonably excited about Python in Excel. After many years in government, I have decided that the best technology is the tools that we already have. And everyone has Excel. However, there are also people working with data in government who might really benefit from having Python in Excel, and we have that now. 

5. Everybody’s talking about AI today – give us your hot take on AI and what it means for the public sector.  

I already have lots of hot takes about AI in the public sector. I publish them on news.publicsectorai.tech.  
 
My other hot take is that we’re not going to see the claimed productivity benefits in any sector, including and especially in the public sector, and can we go back to actually using AI and ML for actually useful things? (Due to some of my recent work in product management in the marine conservation space, I have been learning about machine learning projects that empower deep sea researchers..)  

Why is this even a hot take anyway? The goal of working as technologists in government, to me, is NOT to use the latest technology, but rather to build services for the public using some types of technology. Always the right technology at the right time. 

GenAI right now feels to me like a solution in search of problems. Personally I am skeptical the productivity gains are significant; there are far more interesting applications. I would like to, for example, see a project to try to caption or describe thousands of PDFs and images more accessible in different languages and to describe them for people with visual and other issues. I don’t care to see immigration agents training for their jobs by chatting with a chatbot, especially when there are substantial risks and harms. I am horrified by the use of AI in surveillance globally. And in weapons. I want to see more open and frank discussion about the risk, harms and ethics of AI in the public sector. Speaking as a Singaporean: especially here. 

6. What are your priorities for 2025?  

Complete, and publish “Product for the People”, my book on product management for anyone who cares about the ‘public good’. I want to write the book I wish I had when I first started my role in San Francisco.  

Continue my research on AI bias in Southeast Asian and East Asian languages. Publish. 

The last couple of years were a scramble in many ways: Covid-19 era work was hectic and stressful, and while others continue work in those areas, I think it’s important for me now to think, write, speak and publish.  

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7. What advice do you have for public sector innovators?  

Not every ‘new’ piece of technology is the right piece of technology. Use technology not because it’s new but because it’s well understood, stable, and meets the needs of your users. Don’t forget the public, the ultimate user of your products. This is mostly about LLMs, but this is also about databases, content management systems, and even programming languages.  

8. Who inspires you today? 

Dr Rumman Chowdhury, the CEO of Humane Intelligence, inspires me daily with her work in AI ethics across the globe. Not only is she a leading global expert, she also sets a standard for me in terms of how to be a woman of color in this field.