The Drive for Data Modernization and Private Sector Integration. By Shea Carlberg (GW ‘25) and Diya Kumar (GW ‘26)
There are many data collection crises that we, as workers and consumers, should be tuned into amid this era of instability. At a recent event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) titled “Federal Statistics for Economic Security,” leading economists identified quite a few. “We have to imagine a world where technology will outdo the best economists,” said Oliver Wise, executive director of Bloomberg Center for Governance and Excellence, to a room full of economists. As geopolitical tensions rise, there is a demand for constant innovation. After all, policymakers and economists alike are operating under the belief that the country with faster technological advancement will dominate global ideology. Their strategy: integrating artificial intelligence in governance and federal data collection systems. A wide-scale modernization effort. But what will inch us toward the modernization we think we require? Acting directors at the nation’s highest statistical burea...