Closing the Data Gap: Notes from a Brookings & Stanford HAI Session

The Theia Institute attended a session on closing the data gap for AI policy, featuring lessons from the Stanford HAI AI Index and hosted in dialogue with the Brookings Institution — two of the most respected names in evidence-based technology policy.

Data-driven governance isn’t optional

The central theme was one we return to often: good AI governance depends on good data. Policymakers cannot regulate what they cannot measure, and the gap between the pace of AI development and the evidence base available to those writing the rules is one of the defining challenges of the field.

The Stanford HAI AI Index has become an essential resource precisely because it tries to close that gap — tracking the state of AI with rigor so that policy conversations rest on measurement rather than assumption.

What we took away

Data-driven governance isn’t a luxury; it’s the foundation. Sessions like this sharpen how Theia approaches its own analysis — grounding policy recommendations in evidence and pointing decision-makers toward the data that should inform them.

We’re grateful to learn alongside the researchers and practitioners working to make AI policy more rigorous, and we carry those lessons directly into our work.