Carol M. Highsmith via Wikimedia Commons

A Yale undergraduate was recently named a “senior advisor” at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, according to its public directory.

Peter Bowman-Davis ’25+1, who has been on a leave of absence for the 2024-2025 academic year according to his LinkedIn profile and personal website, is working in HHS’s “immediate office of the secretary,” according to the directory. Politico reported last week that Bowman-Davis will oversee President Donald Trump’s artificial intelligence policy as the acting chief AI officer under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., per an HHS source granted anonymity. The News could not independently verify Bowman-Davis’ exact position. Bowman-Davis did not confirm his appointment and declined to comment for this story.

Kennedy, who was appointed by President Trump, is in charge of administering and overseeing all HHS programs, operating divisions, and activities, including a nearly $2 trillion budget. These divisions include the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

In an HHS press release, Kennedy, who is overhauling the department under Trump’s executive order to “Make America Healthy Again,” said that “over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants.”

Yale professor Stephen Slade, who teaches the undergraduate course “Artificial Intelligence” and served in the Carter White House as a staff assistant in his twenties, called Washington staffers “indefatigable” and said that he believes the current moment is ripe for a technology breakthrough. 

“AI and computer science are about envisioning the future. I would imagine that Peter and the President have a similar vision,” Slade wrote to the News. 

Before joining HHS, Bowman-Davis worked as an engineering fellow at the influential Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The firm, whose founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz endorsed Trump in July 2024, has been an outspoken proponent of expanded technological innovation in government and healthcare.

Bowman-Davis’ appointment comes amid a drastic shift in federal spending policy. In its recently unveiled budget proposal, the administration proposed slashing over $163 billion in non-defense spending. However, funding for research in artificial intelligence and quantum information science has been preserved. 

The recent budget proposal emphasizes maintaining U.S. competitiveness in “priority areas,” such as artificial intelligence.

Though HHS did not respond to the News’ request for comment, Yale faculty with expertise in artificial intelligence and healthcare expressed both caution and curiosity about his appointment.

Slade wrote that age should not be a disqualifier for this type of position and reflected on the generational dynamics of Bowman-Davis’ appointment as acting chief artificial intelligence officer. Slade noted that he himself began working at the White House at age 25.

He emphasized that Washington has long been a place where young staffers with “vision” and “energy” can take on high-level roles. He likened Bowman-Davis to past officials who, despite their youth, helped introduce transformative technologies into government. 

From his time at the White House, Slade recalled that Hamilton Jordan, who later became Chief of Staff, was only 32, and his colleague, Thomas Donilon, was three years younger than him. Slade pointed out that “Tom went on to become the National Security Advisor for Obama, during which time he helped track down and kill Osama bin Laden.”

“Hamilton and Tom were vectors. They had direction and magnitude,” Slade said. “Peter appears to be a vector.”

Kennedy was sworn in on Feb. 13, 2025 as the 26th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.