A 72-year-old congressman goes back to school, pursuing a degree in AI
Normally Don Beyer doesn’t bring his multivariable calculus textbook to work, but his final exam was coming up that weekend.
“And I’m running out of time,” he said, plopping the textbook and a scribbled notebook filled with esoteric-looking calculations on a coffee table in his office, “because I have all these—”
His phone was ringing. “I’ll be there,” Beyer told a colleague wondering when he would be returning to the House floor for votes.
It seemed study time would have to wait.
That’s been the story of the year for Beyer (D-Va.), who has been moonlighting as a student at George Mason University in pursuit of a master’s degree in machine learning while balancing his duties as a congressman. Beyer — a science wonk, economist and former car salesman — has been taking one class per semester in a slow but steady march toward the degree, with hopes of one day applying his artificial-intelligence knowledge to his legislative work as the technology evolves further.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” the 72-year-old Beyer said — although, “I was trying to think last night about the consequences. Number one is I read only two-thirds as many books this year. If I hit 53 I’ll be lucky, just because the time that I used to read books, I’m doing problems.”
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