Neil Miller

As a data scientist who has used machine learning methods and generative AI over the last decade, I want to help my colleagues understand the tech in order to create effective regulations. Companies that build frontier models should be required to disclose basic information about how their models were trained, as well as the environmental impact (like electricity and water). Additionally, we should explore liability for these companies if their models are used for wrongdoing. Given the limited economic benefits data centers provide to the communities they are located, I will speak out against tax breaks or incentives for data centers in Massachusetts. Having worked as a public servant myself, I know first-hand that AI (like many tools) can sometimes help government work more effectively. However, an AI model cannot be help accountable for making poor decisions - only a human can. Therefore, decisions around policy or the provision of government services must always be made by humans.

I support increased resources for DCR to invest in maintaining open-space preserves and parks. Locally, I will pressure DCR to expand access to Riverbend Park (and generally making Memorial Drive less car-centric), and will push for legislation mandating that DCR take these steps. One of the greatest threats to our region’s land-based resources is sprawling, exurban development. As a housing advocate, I will champion increased infill development in existing residential neighborhoods. Thanks to campaigns I helped lead, Cambridge is moving forward with more than 1000 new affordable homes, and we overturned a century of exclusionary zoning rules. If we can sustainably add housing in a dense city like Cambridge, other suburbs in the eastern part of the state can absolutely do the same.

Massachusetts offers some of the best health care in the world, but not everyone is able to access this care. I’m running for state representative so all of my neighbors can get world-class care.

Health care is a personal issue for me and so many of my neighbors. My wife has a chronic condition and relies on prescription medicine to stay well.

And for the past several years, we helped take care of my wife’s grandmother. Ariella’s babushka was a Russian immigrant, who was on MassHealth. And she got life-saving care from MassHealth — home health aides who were literal angels as far as I’m concerned. But the burden to access that care — paperwork, phone calls, home visits anytime she went to the hospital and then came back home — took away from the quality time we could spend together before she passed away.

I support a single-payer health care system. I will also prioritize making it easier for residents to access MassHealth, by simplifying the application and verification process.

Residents can face unacceptable wait times to find a new PCP or get emergency care. I will support policies that build capacity to address ER wait times and primary care wait times. This includes paying PCPs more, such as by increasing reimbursements and student loan assistance.

I will also stand firm in defense of reproductive rights. Reproductive care is health care. Massachusetts must protect what Texas and other states are trying to take away.

I support increased funding for UMass schools to ensure MA students can attend excellent public schools in our state. The UMass system should expand eligibility for tuition-free enrollment, and the state legislature can allocate funding from the Fair Share Amendment to expand opportunity. Beyond the UMass system, I support expanding student debt forgiveness. In my professional capacity, as a data scientist supporting the federal workforce, my team was focused on improving the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Student loan forgiveness can also be used to attract top talent into public service in Massachusetts. Finally, we need to do a better job educating students about financial assistance opportunities available to go to college. Otherwise, students and parents can be scared away by the sticker price of college. HS graduation requirements that will come before the legislature next session will likely include post-graduate planning; this is an opportunity to raise awareness of financial aid programs.

I am a graduate student myself, and many of my closest friends as a young person in Cambridge/Somerville are early career scientists. Therefore, this issue of personal importance to me. The federal government is retreating from its traditional role funding scientific research. Massachusetts should fill the gap. Our state’s economic vitality is based on the discoveries made by scientists - especially grad students and researchers early in their career. Continued investment in research will likely lead to outsized returns, as companies form in Massachusetts based on the discoveries made here. Specifically, I believe the state should fund grants that go directly to young scientists, and not just to established research orgs at big universities. Even before cuts, federal research funding has gotten harder to access if you’re not a senior academic. By giving grants to a wider base of researchers, Massachusetts can make sure good ideas are explored, whether it’s from a faculty head or a scientist who just finished their PhD.