Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Issues a Call to Action, Urging Attendees to Drive a New Era of American Innovation
The Washington AI Network hosted the inaugural AI Honors—Washington’s first official black-tie gala recognizing the promise, power and people of artificial intelligence—at the Waldorf Astoria on Pennsylvania Avenue on June 3.
Washington AI Network founder Tammy Haddad welcomed a sold-out audience of 300 top leaders from government, tech and academia. The evening featured remarks by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who expanded on the earlier announcement of the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI)—a new initiative to support voluntary safety and technical standards for AI development, the Trump administration’s goals for AI, safeguarding AI infrastructure from adversaries, securing semiconductor independence, expanding power for AI, reshoring advanced manufacturing with AI and robotics, and fixing the pharmaceutical supply chain.
“America must lead in AI, and that means embracing innovation while securing our infrastructure,” Lutnick said. “The new Center for AI Standards and Innovation will help ensure developers have clear, trusted guidelines—without unnecessary regulation—so we can stay ahead in the global AI race.”
Lutnick’s remarks outlined an “embrace your allies” approach to AI infrastructure, a push to reshore advanced manufacturing, plans to double U.S. power capacity for data centers, and a warning about supply chain vulnerabilities in both semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
He also issued a call to action to the leaders in the room, urging them to help drive a new era of American innovation: “We need to build and operate the greatest automation build in the history of modern mankind—and that is coming to America.”
The inaugural AI Honors Awardees included:
- Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.), Co-Chair, Senate AI Working Group — AI Impact in Governance Award
- Congressmen Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Co-Chairs, House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence — Bipartisan Leadership on AI Award
- Vice Admiral Frank Whitworth, Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency — Guardian of America Award
- Jack Hidary, CEO, SandboxAQ — AI Visionary Award
- Patricia K. Falcone, Deputy Director for Science & Technology, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — AI Honors in Public Science Award
- Father Paolo Benanti, Vatican Adviser on AI Ethics — Ethics in Artificial Intelligence Award
- Ylli Bajraktari, President & CEO, SCSP; Founder, AI + EXPO — American Competitiveness Award
- Joanna Guy, Chief Technologist, Booz Allen; Zane Price, Space Llama Engineer, Booz Allen; and Don Polaski, VP of AI, Booz Allen — Space Innovation Award
The event was emceed by CNN anchor Sara Sidner, with awards presented by Rep. Brendan Boyle, Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin, and Olivia Igbokwe, Amazon’s Director of Federal Affairs for AWS.
Sara Sidner, Don Polaski, and honorees Joanna Guy and Zane Price pose for a photo onstage during AI Honors hosted by the Washington AI Network at Waldorf Astoria on June 3. Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Haddad Media.
Wayne K. Williams, Rachel Scott, Olivia Igbokwe-Curry and Rep. Vince Fong attend AI Honors hosted by the Washington AI Network at Waldorf Astoria on June 3. Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Haddad Media.
Honoree VADM Frank Whitworth, Tammy Haddad, Teresa Carlson and Jack Hidary attend AI Honors hosted by the Washington AI Network at Waldorf Astoria on June 3. Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Haddad Media.