Feature Friday: Luke Koslosky

With his understanding of the learning ecosystem – from K-12 education to adult learner programs – Luke Koslosky is at the forefront of recommending policies that can unlock opportunities and mitigate risks in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. His unique perspectives, honed through a careful review of evidence combined with formative experiences at the Potomac Institute and on Capitol Hill, foster a nuanced discourse on promoting AI literacy and equitable pathways to quality careers.

Luke, we at CSET, appreciate your valuable contributions and the significant role your work plays. I’m excited to have you share your journey and vision for strengthening and diversifying the AI workforce from your vantage point at CSET's frontlines. Over to you!

What do you like most about CSET?

The diverse educational and professional background of the staff, along with an atmosphere of intellectual honesty and curiosity. On a given day we can talk about any number of niche topics, and there always seems to be someone who happens to know a lot about that subject. There is also a pervasive willingness to update beliefs when faced with new evidence, something I find refreshing in the world of policy.

What are you most excited about what you are working on right now?

We are nearing the end of a difficult, but rewarding, paper on artificial intelligence apprenticeships. As someone who spent time at a community college, I experienced the value of nondegree pathways in our country firsthand. This paper will shed light on another alternative training pathway that could be used to expand and diversify the AI workforce. My colleague Jacob Feldgoise has also done a fantastic job cleaning and enriching the national apprenticeship data that we use in the paper that I think will be of huge benefit to other researchers.

What trends in our industry excite you the most?

Not so much in the industry, but when I first started at CSET, conversations with policymakers almost always started with the question, “Wait, what is AI and why should I even care?” Slowly the question moved from what is AI, to what is the AI workforce, and finally to what we should be doing to strengthen the AI workforce. I like to think that our work has helped to move that needle, and seeing that progress first hand has been very exciting.

What's a fun fact that not many people know about you?

I took a class in college called Walk Across California. As you might have guessed, it involved walking across California from San Francisco to Yosemite, and it was incredible.

Outside of work, what are your passions or hobbies?

I think list form will work best here. I love to: read science fiction and fantasy novels, play pickup basketball, play Dungeons and Dragons with coworkers, stay connected with college friends through once a week gaming nights, listen to comedy podcasts, go to live music concerts, walk my dachshund with my partner, bike around the city with my dachshund in a doggie backpack, go solo to movie theaters, and eat (and cook) good food. That last one is because I was a bartender in DC for about five years and it imbued in me a lasting love for the food and beverage industry.

What is your favorite book or podcast, and why?

For podcasts, Hardcore History by Dan Carlin will always hold a special place in my heart. For books, the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson. He has an uncanny ability to create immersive, intricate, magical worlds filled with characters that empower readers from all walks of life to feel seen and heard. His dedication to consistent, “physics-based” magic systems leads to complex but predictable magic. Everything makes sense in universe. Also he writes really cool action sequences. As they say in his books, journey before destination.