Meet the woman behind America's biggest tech decisions

The CNBC Changemakers and Power Players podcast features conversations with leaders shaping the future of business, policy, and culture. In this episode, CNBC's Julia Boorstin talks with Arati Prabhakar, a former White House science and technology advisor and former head of DARPA, the government agency behind many breakthrough technologies.

Prabhakar is a first-generation immigrant and the first woman to earn a PhD in applied physics from Caltech. Over her career, she has helped shape major decisions around semiconductors, early mRNA research, artificial intelligence, and national security. She shares her non-linear career path, what it means to lead responsibly in powerful technologies, and why investing in public research — with strong ethical guardrails for AI — matters for the country's future.

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