Doing this now, waldo, Vice President of the americas Government Affairs at cisco. I was wondering if you were going to pause, so thank you for that. Good afternoon. At cisco, our purpose is to power and inclusive future for all. Technologybased solutions that the ability to address critical challenges and communities, power hybrid work, transfer and infrastructure in cities and secure the network that were in it all. To ensure the solutions can be deployed, it takes forward thinking policies that foster innovation and emerging digital technologies. For a moment, imagine a world where every home no matter how remote is a beacon of connectivity. The networks that bind us Service Channels of communication, openness and competition. A world where ai prepares us the word and does so responsibly. Today, tools like rock band and aie emerged its foundational pillars shaping our society, economy and government. They are transforming the way that we do things. To fill the end of this moment, right size investments and government policy and research, animation, security and procurement should lead the way. At the heart of this google discourse is the federal Communications Commission and its pivotal role in shaping policy that promotes competition , innovation, inclusion and investment while also ensuring transparency and accountability. Understanding that this is a space where the challenges are significant as the opportunities. The spc has a lot on their plate and knows that this new chapter requires more foresight, collaboration and most of all, balanced approach. Cisco, as we work to bridge the Digital Divide and as we work to ensure all americans have access to reliable and affordable highspeed internet service, then as we work to prepare the Program Forward to help our schools and libraries get a portable service and secure telecommunications and internet access. As we work to cement americas Global Competitiveness by freeing up spectrum, fostering spectrum sharing and accelerating research and development. The fcc has been and will continue to be a critical partner. That is why it is my distinct honor to introduce the intersex date, commissioner anna gomez. She is a trailblazer in the stomach medications policy world. As the first latina american and s. E. C. Commissioner and over two decades, she has dedicated more than 30 years to international and domestic vacations. Law and policy Committee Hearing pain roles in key Public Sector telecommunication initiatives. Commissioner gomez brings a deeply personal commitment to bridging the divide, advocating for highspeed broadband accessibility for every person, community, regardless of geography. Her leadership at the federal level ranges from issues as diverse as Public Safety communications, International Spectrum negotiation. Today, she will share her unique insights with her friend and ceo jason oxman on the oppressive challenges facing the u. S. Will you all please join me in providing a warm welcome the stage commissioner anna gomez. Thanks so much. Thank you for this. Commissioner gomez, welcome. Thank you. Is a great pleasure to have you here. I will say that you are about formants in . That is correct. Will pretend this is your first time in front of an audience of technology professionals. No its not, but we love having you here. Your arrival at the fcc, i think it was eagerly anticipated and might have been an understatement and he felt that the commission and you are now joining a majority of three. I want to start off, but whether they know it or not, they have reported that the issue work for him. Thats entire ecosystem. When you assumed this role, the role of the s. E. C. And that you would play as a commissioner and what your priority roles are, tell us what its like to come into the office. Thank you for having me and i just want to point out that i have known you for almost 30 years that i have been in this. I am delighted to see how well you are doing. I like to talk about my regulatory philosophy. I am still financing finishing formants in, so i have a lot to go, but overarching way i want to ensure that competition drives bring innovation to the consumers. What does that mean . That means ensuring that all users in the u. S. Are connected to highspeed broadband and is it affordable . It means having spectrum for new and innovative services. It means ensuring the public safe has a reason to me and make them safe, as well. On the media side, it means protecting localism and making sure that we have diversity and competition in the median marketplace. All of this, i looked through the lens of consumers, as well as a very practical lens of how will it be implemented . Are particularly want to make sure that we take all of our actions, keep in mind how fx start the underrepresented communities, so that is basically the package. Let me ask you a couple of issues that you mentioned with that remark. One is spectrum and provide access to broadband for nobles of the commission, but theres some action or inaction to describe. Lets start with spectrum issues ranging from Auction Authority to disputes on how much broadband activity we should have as we await takeoff on the runway and a lot of fishes in between that. At a high level, what are the things that you would like the industry to be paying particularly close attention to within the spectrum to the . What is coming up at the fcc or what should we urge congress do to help make sure that it is unlocked for the best uses. For decades, there has been an amazing thirst for spectrum, new and innovative. Its not going down and im quite cognizant of that there is a constant search for finding ways to repurpose a good thing for a new and innovative services. In addition, we have to think balanced, because there are services that rely on spectrum, from your noble normal billable mobile broadband, satellite and science issues. I just got back from dubai and a couple of months, but i was there for the first week of the world rater communication conference where all of these issues were front and center. One of the items that i thought was interesting was the fact that we are looking at a framework for allocating spectrum to be used for cis Lunar Communications as we look to the science with this, but also commercialization of space and on the moon. We need to start thinking about, how will be a locate spectrum for these uses . Spectrum is a big deal and im glad you raised the authority. The fcc pioneer as a way to efficiently assign the and it is a must venture Ashley Claster process and of doing licensed applicants. Because our authorization expired, there is a lot of work that the commission right now cannot do in order to prepare for additional auction. Every day that goes by when we dont have that dream authority, it will put us further behind assigning new licenses for new services. You mentioned the importance of the auctions to licensees of spectrum, the mobile broadband to that we all provide different providers and spectrum that the commission makes possible. I want to ask you about the balance and how you are looking at the need to make sure that innovation that we all benefit from ranging from wifi to Garage Door Openers and Baby Monitors and everything in between. How do you view the commissions role in terms of allocating the license and unlicensed to make sure that there is innovation . I think you just answered the question yourself. We do need to find the appropriate balance and the commission did take action. It was unprecedented to have that much spectrum allocated and continuous spectrum to have larger bandwidth unlicensed. That was one of the items that we did very well with at the communication conference in that week and it remains for use for wifi services, which is important, not just because the services are bringing in a next generation and needs to get caught up with more high bandwidth offense itself, but also because it is so important to maintain the harmonization for equipment. For example, making it lower cost and were deployed, so im very pleased with the outcome of the good work that u. S. Delegation did at the wrc. Since the president plucked you from one role where you were heavily involved in the International Spectrum efforts and you are still heavily involved in that was pleasing to see that it worked that and continue. You also mentioned broadband as part of your Portfolio Properties desmet parities. The news of this week is the potential and very Important Program that has made broadband affordable broadband available to address that important Digital Divide that is pervasive. I think the commission has announced that tomorrow is an unfortunate milestone chart congress not act between now and tomorrow, which i think is probably unlikely. What should we be thinking about the importance of that program . Other programs that congressmen are not me not move forward and what should we ask congress do to make sure we continue to address the Digital Divide . And so glad you raised this question and i do hope that Congress Passes the current bipartisan bills that have been dropped to provide funding to extend the program. Right now, the Affordable Connectivity Program provides support to close to 20 million households. That is nationwide and all over the country. Rural, tribal and everywhere. These are folks that qualify under the program and we believe we will run out of funding sometime in april, so there will be numerous. I am very concerned about it for several reasons. We want to make sure that every user is connected to the internet. It is so important participation and society and our economy. It is important for finding a job and applying to college, homework, mud school, telehealth for seniors. It is so simple to our lives now that those who cannot be connected will fall further and further behind. For me, i also want to make clear that there is broader effects on the economy. You dont know what kind of innovation you are going to bring from that one student who would not have that connection, but somehow is able create some type of online product that becomes the next google . I dont know. Also, telehealth. Telehealth reduce the cost to medicare and medicaid by 20 . The majority of subscribers to acp, i believe, are seniors. They are very high costs to surf. For that, the services tend to be higherpriced. That is despite our universal service goals. We need to make sure that the companies that are providing the services are able to continue and i think we are spending billions of dollars to deploy broadband throughout every corner of america. We need to make sure that they are sustainable. That is without subscribers that wont necessarily be sustainable, so we are looking at a downstream of losing support for 22 million households, which can really have a significant effect on our economy. Good to see Congress Take action. As you noted, its important to a lot of communities and close to half of the participants are military, as will, so definitely important for our nation. I want to ask you about two other areas that are important to the Tech Industry that the fcc has released a of activity and one of the service and Cyber Trustmark. I was pleased to participate and we will actually hear from Ann Newberger a little bit later who convened the group at the white house that the fcc empowered to move forward, so tell me about the Cyber Trustmark and Cyber Security efforts and how important those are. I am very excited about the Cyber Trustmark. The commission put out a notice of proposal making that would create the Cyber Trustmark, which is an essence, a local much like the energy star logo. It is a device that has the logo, which means it meets standards for cyber hygiene. It will also have a qr code for the consumer, so that they could find out more about the manufacturer and product itself and how secure it is. I think it could become a really Competitive Edge if its adopted widely enough and the consumers actually accept it as something trustworthy. Im excited that the industry is excited about the trustmark and it could be a really good Public Partnership between the fcc and manufacturers to leave to better separate outcomes. Its a voluntary program. You really want it to be Market Driven and make sure it succeeds. We look forward to helping support the program. As you said, it is a competitive differentiator about the care that they take with the manufacturer and diploma products. The last Technology Question is not surprisingly given as we talked about all day is ai. We have seen fccs engagement with the ai and helping track down a robo collar who enabled ai to be used to the president in a political primary. There is an coronary underway and this is a new area for the commission to focus on. What can we expect and what is the role that the industry can help form the process as you move forward . I have not seen anything as hot as ai as right now since the beginning of the internet when you and i were baby lawyers back in the day. I think there are several ways we are looking at ai and it has benefits and risks. In addition to looking at a from the perspective of how it encourages calls to be used or how it can also be used to mitigate against robo calls and texts. We are also looking at it from the accessibility point of view. Already, there is a lot of good work being done without ai, for example on speech recognition. The Disability Advisory council is looking and has a working group on ai and potentials and risks with ai. The chairwoman announced that she circulated, which already voted to approve, a declaratory ruling that fake voices using Artificial Intelligence are covered under the telephone Consumer Protection act, therefore prohibit it without prior consent. This will help ensure that consumers arent subject to pride. These terrible robo calls and robo texts. In addition, there is a lot of talk about looking at spectrum management. There is a lot of good and interesting uses for Artificial Intelligence that we will see develop more and more. Of course, we need to be careful about the risks and make sure that it gets used responsibly, but how the industry can help, i have been on a mission to educate myself as much as possible on ai, because im not an expert. I just went to a conference this weekend and one of the professor said that professors like to say, i dont know anything about this and i want to stop saying i dont know anything about this, but. We look for the Educational Mission and we are so lucky that the president picked you to fill the role at the commission. Please join me in thanking fcc commissioner anna gomez. [ applause ] please welcome cao salesforce ai and lane heath, Global Technology correspondent at x euros. Hhello, everyone. Everyone here has been drowning in ai for a year and it will stay revolutionized around the world and it will destroy the world and kill us all. I dont buy into either of those perspectives, so i want us to start in some of the real practical round of how people are actually using ai. Kick us off of all of your thousands of clients. What is a surprisingly that you have seen of ai of the last few months . What a fascinating time. I think its 1998 for ai and two are starting to see some early use cases, but so much of the potential and risks are still to come and it is a tremendous learning moment for everyone, regardless if you are in the Public Sector, private sector and academia. It is exciting and there is tremendous opportunity for ai to really benefit all kinds of people from around the world and our country. I think that we are fortunate to be in this position when it comes to ai. In terms of what we are seeing from customers, it is interesting. Every Enterprise Customer and small businesses, we work with all kinds of companies and we are hearing everyone start with the same question. How do i trust generative ai . From a state of privacy and security sense, as well as ethics and understanding the black box of how an input generates an output given that ai and generative ai is not deterministic, but statistical. That means that the same exact prompt you put in can output Something Different every single time you ask it. That is a new paradigm and i didnt technology is going to have to get used to. The number one question is trust, which also happens to be our companys number one value. How do we engineer trust into the products . How do we help our customers deploy ai in a safe and secure way that respects data privacy and security. The number two question is does make a lot of Companies May be felt underwhelmed by some of their earlier investments in the last big trend, which isnt as big as the one around you. It is the blocking and metaphors. It is the second and are environment, what is the Business Case for ai . Running training and imprint on the Large Language Models can be expensive, so there has to be a Business Case in mind, whether it is driving productivity, increasing the sales output of the sales department, driving deficie