“Defending Digital” Series, No. 5: Individual decisions are shaped by our values, beliefs, experiences, inclinations, prejudices, and blind spots. These “biases” can easily leak into information system design. But overall and over time, modern technology will prove a force for more fair and objective societal actions.
Publications
April 25, 2022
Personalized learning powered by AI provides a unique opportunity to close learning gaps between students in lower-income schools and those in wealthier ones, as well as improve educational outcomes for all students.
April 22, 2022
The federal government has learned a lot since the HealthCare.gov episode in 2013. By looping in the right stakeholders in the planning stage, the COVIDtests.gov product team was able to work collaboratively to come up with the best approach.
April 22, 2022
Although skeptics call IP an “elite concern,” recent reports from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), and the European Patent Office (EPO) show the positive impact IP has on small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), overall employment, and regional and global economies.
April 21, 2022
If Congress wants to advance the U.S. economy in its toe-to-toe competition with China, then lawmakers need to pass legislation prohibiting cities, states, and the federal government from providing any funding to Chinese companies investing in the United States.
April 21, 2022
The United States and Korea could align collaborative international development aid/assistance, development finance support, and export credit initiatives to encourage nations to select digital technologies, solutions, and platforms from vendors in like-minded nations.
April 18, 2022
Protecting American innovation is especially critical in an environment in which the military increasingly depends on dual-use technologies such as the memory products at issue in this transaction. We should not allow China to weaponize antitrust for theft of American intellectual property.
April 18, 2022
The U.S. Department of Energy’s new Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations is a tremendous step forward for innovation and must become a permanent fixture in the federal structure. DOE needs time right now to build up the new office systematically, and over the next few years its funding must grow rapidly, so that it can drive a steady stream of innovations ready to be scaled up nationally and globally.
April 18, 2022
Technologies to capture and store carbon must be part of the arsenal to fight climate change. To deploy them at scale, policymakers should expand federal incentives, increase RD&D for traditional and novel technologies, and expedite permitting and siting of requisite infrastructure.
April 18, 2022
One of the benefits of electric vehicles is they cost less to maintain. But that also means there’s less profit to be had in servicing their warranties, which gives car dealers less incentive to sell them. That’s why EV makers like Tesla and Rivian depend on direct-to-consumer sales and distribution. Unfortunately, there are decades-old dealer-distribution laws standing in the way.