New Jersey’s AI Moonshot: Governor Phil Murphy on Partnerships, Progress, and Preparedness

**Phil Murphy** (0:00)
This is going to touch all walks of life. You know, we're a big pharmaceutical, bio, life sciences state. The whole notion of drug discovery is going to be transformed. A mistake I think a lot of people make is it's in a narrow technology lane. This is going to change all of our lives. I'm not going to be the guy that's going to take us to superhuman intelligence, but I'm assuming it's going to happen. I want to make sure that New Jersey has the very best catchers met out there when all of that comes our way. We've seen a 50% boost in call resolution rates through things like self-service options. For one of our programs, we reduced phone wait times from 40 plus minutes to an average of 90 seconds. Distance that we've traveled from chat GBT to today will be dwarfed by the distance we travel from today, say two years from now.

**Nathan Labenz** (0:57)
Hello, and welcome back to The Cognitive Revolution. Today, my guest is Phil Murphy, Governor of New Jersey, and when it comes to AI, one of the most forward-thinking elected officials in America today. Spending as much time as I do in the AI bubble, I often find myself confused and at times frustrated by how few leaders, both in business and government, seem willing to truly grapple with the magnitude of change that AI technology could bring in just the next few years. So, I was very pleasantly surprised when Governor Murphy's team reached out to us to suggest this episode. And as I dug in, including by using OpenAI's deep research to explore his record, I came to really appreciate how much time, energy, and desire to learn he's bringing to AI issues. Especially considering that he's in the last year of his term-limited tenure as governor, he could easily have coasted to the finish. But in fact, he's done just the opposite. Concretely, under his leadership, NJ has trained over 13,000 state employees on AI tools, begun to use AI systems to help reduce wait times for government services, in one case from an average of more than 40 minutes to just now 90 seconds, and established an AI Hub in partnership with Princeton University, with Microsoft and CoreWeave as corporate partners, that's meant to promote AI R&D in the state, train workers on new AI tools, and ensure that AI is deployed in ways that benefit all NJ residents.
In addition to reviewing his accomplishments to date, in this conversation, we also discuss how he came to recognize AI's transformative potential, his approach to balancing efficiency with equity as AI capabilities grow and begin to affect jobs, his strategy for meeting AI's energy requirements while still achieving clean energy goals, his thoughts on whether states should regulate AI in the absence of federal action, how to maintain American values in the midst of intensifying international competition, and whether there's any hope for US-China cooperation despite the deep differences in approaches to privacy, intellectual property, and individual rights across the two countries. Overall, while Governor Murphy maintains some, perhaps appropriate, skepticism around the most extreme AI possibilities, I was really impressed by his humility and open-mindedness. At one point, you'll hear him acknowledge that the pace of progress has repeatedly surprised him. And toward the end, he commented that our conversation will likely feel dated in just a few months. A truly admirable level of situational awareness from someone with so many other responsibilities on his plate. As always, if you're finding value in the show, we'd appreciate it if you'd share it with friends, read review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just leave us a comment on YouTube. And we very much welcome your feedback, including pointers to other influential leaders who are ahead of the curve on AI, which you can deliver via our website cognitiverevolution.ai, or by DMing me on your favorite social network. Now, I hope you enjoy my conversation about New Jersey's AI Moonshot and much more with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, welcome to the Cognitive Revolution.

**Phil Murphy** (4:01)
Thanks for having me, Nathan. It's Jersey to Detroit, Michigan today.

**Nathan Labenz** (4:06)
I love it. So, in preparation for this conversation, one of the things that jumped out at me most is that you seem to be among a pretty small percentage of our elected officials who seem to be really grappling with just how big of a change AI might be about to usher into really all aspects of life and society. I saw in one interview you said, quote, everything is on the table. I'd love to hear how you came to that realization, how wide open is your view of what the future might look like, and how many of our other elected officials do you think are there with you in understanding that?