Thank you. Im happy to be here today to introduce amy webb. Her title is quantitative futurist, so she has the most interesting title of anybody in this room. She founded the future today institute. She studies technology and science. She guides universities, intotry, and government navigating change. She explores a range of intriguing ideas such as fair and equal codebase against the dangers of bias. Her most recent book teaches us how to think like a futurist and distinguish the real trend from the merely trendy. Her book was selected as one of fast companys best books. She has chronicled her adventures in online dating. Experiencewith only in game very might do, she for love. You can see an in her ted talk. Welcome rob and the woman who is named by forbes as one of the women changing the world through technology. Amy webb. [applause] good morning. So, i want to start by i have heard both net a lot this morning. As though this is a new phenomenon. I would like to take you back to 2011 when we saw the first emergence throughout the current modern social media. In 2014 there was somebody experimenting with something called the dark net shopper. How many of you have heard about the random dark net shopper so this is a problem. In 2014 and was deployed and it wasnt until 2015 that authorities realized they had about Ecstasy Pills and passports. The problem was there was no case law or policy or thinking about what do we do. To me this is problematic for two reasons, first i spoke with several different Government Agencies including state about the random dark net shopper and that it eliminated two very important things. First there is such a thing that we ought to be paying attention to in the second, we dont have any thinking around this because if it can be deployed to purchase stuff illegally that is hard. Spreading this information is actually pretty easy. We are now at the four Year Anniversary and to my knowledge there is no case law or policy or thinking around the future of. Net and i keep hearing plans to fight something thats already happened. This is incredibly important because the technology compared to what is already on the horizon is like childs play. We are entering a new era of computing Artificial Intelligence. This is and codebased. Its the third era of computing and in the United States not only does it not have any realistic depoliticized policy or thinking around Artificial Intelligence and any cohesive way that we are not pouring money into the field of the others are aont like and yet an it will wind up being politicized. We dont have a an office of Technology Assessment anymore and even though other countries do around the world so what ends up happening is we have people who are constantly recognizing far too late that the technology maybe can behavmay be can behave dont like. We can talk about i it really concerns me that it everybody is fired up about this technology that is four years old in terms of freaking havoc around the internet in ways that seem to be surprising people. Throwing down for the next speaker, you better have good talking points. Exit explains wynette neutrality became this crazy juggernaut. Explains why everybody is concerned about the future of ai. With regards to and explains why 5g seems to be part of a national industry, nobody knows. Lets talk about, looking at this conference compared to two years ago, two years ago people talked about big tech and social media like it was the public square. Discussion is more like, you have ruined everything, history will not be kind. What were the trends we missed . Maybe you saw them. I did not see them. In my world, the Technology Trend is not trendy. These are datadriven. , the reason i think we keep missing things is because americans have become a nations a nation of nowists. Our Current Administration is backward thinking and antagonistic toward science. We are very far behind china in key areas. We are behind russia in areas of key technological development. Years of not more getting ourselves caught up. This is a critical time. The next 10 years is the beginning of the end of smartphones, the beginning of the end of computational technology, the standard types of computers. While were busy looking backwards and fighting yesterdays squabbles, everybody elses moving forward. Forward inher moving Key Technology but reliances are being built. China could emerge as the Global Leader. Technology,ntal its fascinating. Rob you mentioned 5g. Lets give it to that. It is out there. Axiosos had a report had report that the current government is having a conversation about nationalizing 5g. For reasons not quite clear. They said a reason of national security. Whether the last intern to get access to the whiteboard wrote this out [laughter] coming . You see this amy heres what i find problematic. The last thing we need at this point is yet another thing with data beyondactual whatever deck got released. That leads to wild speculation. But instead reacting. We can all react. And heres the reality. But as we move into a world of connected things the challenges they need more bandwidth and connect to each other in a secure way. That isnt just the new refrigerators and connected kitchens but also the vehicles we are driving. And with those technologies on the horizon. And wanting to ensure that systems some way. Where has the government been the past 60 years . That whole infrastructure was built by commercial entities. To be fair they should have years ago and that broadband and digital video was coming. And they build that network to have some say in monetizing that investment in that transition has been slower in the United States than elsewhere. But all of these conversations now because at this point better to have had these conversations ten years ago before they had to make decisions under duress. So dont knows. Artificial intelligence a special sauce to make it sound more attractive. That was two years ago. What is that policy implications if you look at social networks to say there wasnt so much disclosure discussion but then we thought we should solve harassment and change peoples minds but not by being mean to them. Here is what i would say about a. I. It is not singular. It is a way of computing and those challenges in general is most of the research is handled by nine companies. Not research institutions. All of the advancement by corporate interests. However at some point but up against the National Interest and in the future of humanity. Microsoft and facebook and google and i am forgetting one. Apple . And ibm. And most people globally are in china. But the Chinese Government is that proclamations over the next 20 years. With that Global Leader and china doesnt always follow through measuring up to the proclamation that china is not going alone. But they are pouring money but unlike a traditional venture capitalist they are also bleeding information technology. But there is no way for me to build a scenario out for the next 20 years that has the optimistic framing. China because it is mind and refined. And i should have mentioned amazon. So if that is the case in the United States jeff be so says the new rockefeller. But not as powerful as china. So the United States lacks as china. So the United States lacks a. I. Lacks like automation and transportation in all of these different areas. And we dont have a National Biology policy that is one of the most important platforms of the 21st century. We do have a National Biology strategy or a national a. I. Strategy that i know of. I am not seeing a lot of the same enthusiasm but instead avoiding the subject or waiting or throwing money into yesterdays technology. That is infuriating because it doesnt have to be that way. I dont want to wake and are supposed to say where did this come from . That is not the first time you overstepped. One of the things we have to do Going Forward is to write policy in a way that makes sense given the technology is intended to govern. At the Moment Technology is advancing foss asked her to write policy or to legislate. And if that is the scenario one has to wonder how does it get enforced . If you are worried about fake news now entering into the splintered internet depending where you are in the world, absolutely it has geopolitical borders and as of may incredibly stringent regulatory borders with the content but also may not be legal in italy or canada versus mexico. How do we enforce that . I think we have to think critically creating policy those that are creating those technologies. You dont want to stifle that innovation and development that you cannot regulate three years after the fact. But there are different pockets to have hundreds upon hundreds of technologist and mathematicians who are nonpartisan whose job it is to write policy. We dont have that anymore. Bet that Technology Assessment. How much money did we save . So much probably one seat on an aircraft carrier. Air force one . That could be real money. But in the United States we were the template for other countries around the world. So to have that equivalent now to have that conversation also to have a cdc for Public Health but we do have something similar to that. And as a very smart person so now my dad will get hacked. But that technology that we use isnt it time to have a cdc to educate the everyday person about the benefits and dangers to use Digital Tools and infrastructure and online media but in a way that is relatable. So when the last discussion it was not great. What are the signs you are looking for . With the 400pound . Is how far out of touch you assume hackers are still people. They are not. On the more advanced side people have written programs to do this automatically. So the 400pound hacker as the cause of election problems, that is not what we are talking about. And smaller than that. And when you think of hacking you probably still think about computers within our lifetime or in the next 15 years we will have new types of technology that we ingest or that we wher where wherefore purposes i dont think anybody has a clue as to what is coming to washington d. C. Has thought this through. And those voices would be great to hear i just dont think we are prepared or to constantly look for doom and gloom but given what i know to be true today im having a hard time. Im having a hard time. So we just go further down this path . I dont think we are living in the west world we do have the ability to change or to write the futures but then push up our sleeves to do the difficult job so to create that future that we want. Depending on where you are you may have access to make fake news that much more difficult to do something about that now. I watched, twitter and facebook made big promises. Did anybody get the survey . Nobody . It was a two question survey basically do you trust the sources and that was basically it. Twitter promised to combat these problems with the International HolocaustRemembrance Day with the left rail one was islam i clicked on in the very top news story was from russia today. It was a totally madeup story i wont repeat it it was not even worth repeating it is made up and i have a verified account. This is not magical pixie dust that nobody can grab onto it is not that hard to fix they just choose not to. That is the case for not the problem so we are part of the problem for what will happen next then we have to do something about it which is just having occasional meetings in washington d. C. On the other hand it seems there is this strain through humans. But that is perpetuated the current internet plays very well to our limbic system. So on the one hand it is our biology. Not our fault. But there are other times we have medical ailments and we have a way to get around it but the problem is we all enjoy this too much we like to smack talk everybody has an opinion on net neutrality. Why . Why does burger king . But that is the point it doesnt matter if it is fake news or actual news everybody wants to be a part of it but our attention is currency so we have to decide we want a different future for ourselves that is the mandate. The book is about how to be a better futurist so what are the questions they should be asking here is a Security Breach here is this other thing that you can now worry about. All my research and methodology was published it is also publicly available. My feeling is the kind of work that i do it is what anybody can do but just make a decision Going Forwards on Digital Literacy there is a lot of amazing organizations that are working on this there is a lot of different ways to help but in terms of thinking about the future it isnt like checking the wind it is more than that but it is what everybodys office should be fully engaged in the last 75 and slow down a little bit. I know we live in a fastpaced society but the technology we are confronting is a means several years from now we will be living in a magical world. But at some point somebody will want to legislate against it or somebody will break a law in a way we havent thought of . Even now do our constitutional guarantees if i if the code is slaved . We have a lot of difficult questions on the horizon and not to answer those under duress so everybody can take a moment to engage and hopefully we are better off in the long run. Now there is a coffee break. So go caffeinated. [applause] [inaudible conversations] announcer heres a look at our live coverage monday. Returns. House discussing combating cyber attacks. Government funding past the thursday deadline. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton talks about the role of women in advancing human rights. And the government returns to theider the nomination of director of the u. S. Patent and trademark office. And on cspan3, a discussion on the Political Climate and the impact on the senate. The House AdministrationCommittee Considers a resolution that requires lawmakers and staff to adopt an antitrust but and antidiscrimination policy. Morning, we are live in jackson, mississippi, for the next up on the cspan 50 capitals tour. The Mississippi Attorney general will be our guest. This past week on capitol Congressional Budget Office director keith hall ofponded to allegations favoritism. This is two and half hours. [gavel pound] it is 10 00