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Big Tech firms bristle at the mention of regulation, and unlike major industries including finance, energy, and pharmaceuticals, tech has so far managed to avoid the strong arm of governmental control. But companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon wield an out-sized amount of influence over how we shop, communicate, and get the news. Just in case these companies don’t ha...
Within our lifetimes, AI will, by design, begin to behave unpredictably, thinking and acting in ways which defy human logic. Big tech companies may be inadvertently building and enabling vast arrays of intelligent systems that don't share our motivations, desires, or hopes for the future of humanity. Is it too late to change course and realize a human-centered future for a...
So much of who we are and what defines us—as individuals, businesses, and organizations—is captured in data that resides in the cloud. A few lines of code can dismantle business, shut down infrastructure, and reveal critical personal details. It’s widely accepted that code moves faster than law, so how do we protect the intangible? What is the government’s role in keeping...
The generative artificial intelligence genie is out of the bottle. When we look back 30 years from now, what will we be able to point to that we got right?
Harvard Professor Cass Sunstein talks to Facebook Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg about some of the biggest questions facing the internet — including government regulation, shifts to privacy, and innovation.
The impacts of cybercrime and the proliferation of cyberattacks are unsettling at best and very dangerous at worst. Not only are we experiencing increases in nefarious activity for personal gain, we are seeing threats against nation-states, the likes of which society has not experienced before. Is it time for the world’s governments to implement international rules to prot...
America’s heartland is quietly upending traditional notions of how cities work to deliver on their promise of shared prosperity. This means local governments, philanthropy, and the private sector have to work together and work differently. Jennifer Bradley of the Center for Urban Innovation and Rip Rapson of the Kresge Foundation discuss how leaders from Detroit, Fresno, M...
If the First Amendment’s protections against government intrusion are a core tenet of American democracy, what happens when the chief regulators of speech are private technology companies? What is protected, who gets to decide, and what are the implications for our democracy?
As the debate continues over whether generative A.I. will bring about an evolutionary or revolutionary change in cybersecurity, concerns are growing about implications for personal-data security and privacy. What’s the potential impact of generative A.I. on elections, financial transactions, and privacy? And most importantly, what role should the government play in protect...
The award-winning economist Mariana Mazzucato has been called the “world’s scariest economist.” Why? She challenges us to reconsider capitalism as it exists today. Focusing on innovation-led, inclusive, and sustainable growth, Mazzucato examines the critical — and misunderstood — role that governments play in fostering innovation. Her latest book, The Value of Everything,...
Trust is fundamental to almost every action, relationship, and transaction in society, but we live in an era when technology is rapidly changing who and how we trust. The trust we used to place in traditional institutions such as governments, banks, media, and charities has hit an all-time low, and trust now flows horizontally through systems and networks that are as likel...
While the public once considered the digital world merely a space for communication and information access, perhaps we should think of it as a landscape of its own: As we know at this point, the cyber world is defined by unique security threats, physical restraints, and power dynamics. Likewise, on the Internet, monitoring and mediating insecurities, threats, and attacks h...
From election meddling and economic espionage to financial fraud and personal identity theft, it’s becoming clear that cybersecurity is increasingly central to every aspect of the way we live. Both state-sponsored cyber-spies and transnational organized crime groups pose urgent threats online to our nation’s critical infrastructure, our security, and our fundamental values...
How will government survive without the skill of tech superstars among its ranks? Jen Pahlka’s Code for America was launched with the mission to use the principles and practices of the digital age to rebuild the institutions we rely on for our democracy. Kathleen Janus, whose recent book took her around the country meeting top social entrepreneurs, guides this conversation...
Technology used to be a lot more accessible, open, and ethical. It was driven by optimistic tinkerers rather than big companies. That changed. The entire industry and ecosystem is now ruled by a handful of companies rather than upstarts. American tech giants are now among the most powerful institutions in the world, rivaling governments in their power over media, culture,...
In the age of big data and the rise of the digital economy, no government agency plays a more central — or less understood — role than the mysterious National Security Agency. For years, the so-called Puzzle Palace was so secret that officials joked its acronym stood for “No Such Agency,” — until Edward Snowden published many of its biggest secrets online. Hear one of the...
Americans are more connected than ever – at home, at work, and in everyday life. Yet few people understand the privacy trade-offs that come with each connection, and companies don’t make it easy to find out. How can we ensure consumers have a fair say in how companies use their personal data? Allstate CEO Tom Wilson and Harvard University lecturer Bruce Schneier sit down w...
Who is responsible for keeping us healthy? Provocative questions about responsibility, control, and power are being vigorously debated as models of health care are redesigned, prevention gains cachet, and the roles of individual behavior, advocacy, public policy, and government responsibility are weighed. Creative Tensions is a conversation that moves, one in which partici...
The public optimism that came with the launch of social media a decade ago has settled into a wariness that we might instead face a long, grueling daily fight for truth and facts in the face of unrelenting, automated disinformation online. As the 2020 elections gear up, how should our country face the threat from Twitter bots and Facebook trolls? What responsibility should...
A large, unsettling question looming among Washington regulators, lawmakers, and now state Attorney’s General across the US is whether the time has come to break up the big five: Facebook, Amazon, Google, Netflix, Apple. Have these powerful tech companies, once the darlings of the start-up community not twenty years past, become so dominant that they are stifling competiti...