Transcripts For CSPAN Small 20240703 : vimarsana.com

Can you hear me now . Sorry about that. Technology jumped in and took away my dulcet tones. Im not sure how much you heard but i , board member here and we are joined by devries. Bailey runs the office of investment and administration at the office of business administration. That is the oii. You just saw some clips from the sba i should say from the bpc , observations and data gathering on the economics of our nation. I volunteered to be someones agent because he seems to be getting more press than anyone i know, but the key thing about our time today with Bailey Devries is not only to talk about the sba but also how technology and specifically ai, the term we are hearing all the time, are affecting Small Business operations. Thanks for joining us. Ms. Devries thank you for it pleasure to be here. Tell our viewers what the office of investment and innovation does at the sba. Bailey its an incredible office and it is an honor and privilege to be temporary steward of this office. Our mission, humbly, is to support ensuring that u. S. Entrepreneurs and Small Business owners, founders of startups, can get access to capital both longterm, equity and debt, to start, scale, grow and sustain incredible businesses that create jobs and improve the u. S. Economy more broadly and the human condition more broadly. What is incredibly exciting about our office is it is so much more than just capital. The capital is incredibly important. They say if you dont have capital its hard to do much else. Our office is also responsible for managing and administering Small Business Innovation Research programs. For those not familiar with those programs, they are programs that we administer and support across 11 participating agencies throughout the federal government that have r d budgets, and we work with those agencies to be supportive of providing contracts and grants to support prototyping, research, r d and commercialization of cuttingedge technologies. Incredible program that has been in existence for over 40 years and provides 4 billion of nondiluted funding every single year to support innovation. And last and certainly not least, we run a portfolio in the Innovation Ecosystems program. There are incredible organizations across the public and private sectors, philanthropy and corporates, that work to provide expertise and support talk up and hours that are building innovative support to entrepreneurs that are building innovative companies. We work with the entrepreneurial support organizations, provide them with grants and prizes to fund their operations, and we do that through something called the Accelerator Fund competition, so our federal and state Technology Partnership program, and we recently assumed responsibility for an exciting portfolio called the Regional Innovation collective, which will focus on an industryvertical or Technology Expertise in a particular area for Small Businesses seeking to innovate in those industries. Its a privilege to get to work on so many Exciting Missions and to be able to have an impact for so many entrepreneurs and also to support them in building this thing that supports so many jobs for many americans. Mark i am obviously biased since i proceeded you by at least one administration. I think that the programs that the office of investment innovation runs are, bluntly, not marketed well enough, because if the common citizen new the impact of where those funds that are allocated each year through you and your teammates go and the impact they have had not just on technology or start but businesses we use every day, i think we would all be amazed and super thankful for the Publicprivate Partnership value and energy that oii brings, but from a larger perspective, the sba has been the center of an unbelievable outpouring of capital during covid into various programs like ppp, etc. Has it calmed down over at hq a little bit since the covid furor and all of the outflow of capital to help Small Businesses across the u. S. . Bailey excellent question. I will give you a nuanced answer. We have not caught up about this but im actually wearing a dual hat right now. I am serving so im excited to accept to except the invitation to act as the acting officer for Capital Access. Im leaving our Capital Access division, responsible for one 400 for 140 billion dollars in Capital Loans and access based lending and our disaster lending programs, including ppp and the idle program. What i will share is that we are certainly in a different kind a different point in that journey and the incredible thing that i think is such a great opportunity is the Brand Awareness of the sba has never been greater across america and with that it presents opportunities for us to extend support across our broader portfolio to meet the needs of Small Business owners and entrepreneurs that are launching innovative startups across the country. Mark wow. So you do have many hats and that keeps you busy. I did not know but congratulations or maybe my condolences on adding all of that responsibility. So i know that emergency and disaster funds have been particularly top of the news recently with maui and other arenas. I am sure our listeners dont realize how the sba is so important in some of these Disaster Recovery efforts. Give us an example of how the sba has been a real player in people recovering from disaster situations like the recent fire in maui. Bailey its interesting, and i will admit i was naive to this before transitioning from the private sector to work at the sba. We often think of fema immediately when there is a national disaster, but the reality is that a large percentage, and a greater percentage of financial supports actually comes from the sba, and the sba provides lowcost loans to homeowners, Business Owners, to be there to support them and recover from national disasters, and in addition to supporting them, getting access to capital that they need quickly to recover from these situations, so our teams, our boots on the ground, provide Technical Assistance and support to help them navigate federal programs and local programs and philanthropy. I think it is something that everybody who has worked at the sba can be incredibly proud of, we take a whole of agency approach around recovery. This is a challenging and trying time for Small Business owners and americans affected by these disasters. Mark to remind our viewers, of which there are apparently a wonderful number, we will have q a, so if you have a question for bailey, be sure to type it in chat and we will have a curated list of questions i will present to bailey later in our conversation, another 10 or 15 minutes or so. The idea of the sba as, sadly, in my opinion again, i am biased a hidden partner in so many things that happen in Business Development and disaster relief. One of the things and i hope i phrase this delicately or in a way that does not sound confrontational, not to you, but the government in general, is sometimes in the government agencies, not so much in the department of defense, which gets the best technology, but the platform for technology and handling data can sometimes be behind the curve in other agencies. In the sba, you interact with Small Businesses that are often very high growth. I would argue you need to be closer to the tip of the spear on where technology is taking Small Businesses and how they interact with their marketplaces. And of course Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are the newest zone here. In the view of many, its either satan, its going to destroy everything, or its the visitation of the great savior who will make our lives less drudgery filled, etc. What are some ways that you are you and your teammates are either deploying ai and ml or you are seeing it affect the Small Business arena . Bailey so first, i certainly would not take that comment to be a criticism, but an acknowledgment of the large discrepancies that exist in appropriations between different federal agencies. We should be grateful our Defense Department is so wellfunded. Our National Security is paramount over Everything Else working properly in this country. I will say that i think we are all grateful that congress moved with speed in the pandemic in providing funding to support Small Businesses and with that also came administrative funds for the operations of the agency and i applaud and think we should all applaud the person who, for those who dont know, also served as the chief of staff at the agency during the obama administration. She understood the inner workings of the agency quite well so was able to move swiftly and understood the need Technology Modernization and improvement need for Technology Modernization and improvement to make sure we could effectively get funding out the door rapidly for ppp to make sure that Small Businesses did not go under and we were able to save american jobs. That was a massive investment in technology. She has invested heavily in modernizing the sba on the technology front. I think we can also all admit, though, that we are the least funded agency with cabinet level representation, yet the sba has to meet the call and we are privileged to me the call of supporting over 33 million to meet the call of over 33 million Small Businesses in the u. S. , responsible for creating over 90 over 99 of new jobs every single year in this country, so i cannot think of an agency that needs more funding to ensure we are able to meet this need. One thing is inevitable. We know thats change. Thats change in technology, that we go through periods where change happens very rapidly, the Technology Innovation cycle only speeds up, which is exciting, but also presents risks and considerations, and with that requires the need to have good governance, good support, Good Technology systems, and to be able to secure technologies that we need to effectively meet the needs of Small Businesses and also to not introduce security risks. The administration has also taken many steps to improve cybersecurity at the agency by leveling up the role of cybersecurity within the agency, which is tremendous. Additionally, though, she is incredibly customercentric and Technology Forward in everything that she does and things about the need for Small Businesses in terms of how do we help them with cybersecurity. She actually launched an incredible Pilot Program to support cybersecurity for Small Businesses last year. It awarded funding to stay partners to work with Small Businesses in their region and Just Announced more funding and more partners. That way, we can be there to meet their needs. The requirements are high. The complexity continues to grow and so we have to be there, meet them where they are, understand their needs and help them gain access to tools. And theres more. I would say one of the things that is incredibly exciting is the launch of a Publicprivate Partnership that we have through the Small Business digital alliance, where several large corporations within the innovation economy have partnered with the sba, meta, google, microsoft and others, to provide Small Businesses and entrepreneurs with the tools that they might need to be able to start adapting and adapting the use of Artificial Intelligence tools and technology more broadly, but do so safely and securely. Mark so you mentioned the administrator. I am the regional president of the usable guzman fan club. Im a cardcarrying member. And your point and to your point, not to spend too much time on it, but as we both know, for understanding of the wheels of operational execution within the sba has been, from my perspective, observing as a thirdparty party, have been invaluable in just knowing how to operate the machinery, so to speak, but also to describe the needs of the machinery on the hill and in other funding arenas and then to implement those conversations into improvements. So congratulations to all involved and particularly the administrator. But this idea of engaging large tech companies. You named a few of them there, the big ones. In helping provide toolsets and feedback and productive uses of ai and ml, this seems to be the way that the sba has always led, i think, in Publicprivate Partnerships, so i guess the first challenge, i would argue, that you are facing at the sba is the database challenge alone, because you interact with so many customers, so many businesses, so many sbir grant recipients, etc. , just generating the database and tracking the data of who did what, received what, what has worked out and all that, has that been part of the challenge that your Technology Funding has helped address . Bailey that Technology Funding was specific to ppp. There were many different programs, but there are limitations to it. I think if we lift up and talk about this more broadly in the federal government but also the private sector, we went through a period of time where we collected a lot of data and information. The collective we. What industry and government has done. And with that, its wonderful that theres the information, but it also begs the question around how can you use that information . How can you use it for the right purposes to the benefit of Small Businesses, to the benefit of policymaking, to have better programs and Better Solutions . That is the big challenge, you know, how do you structure the data, how do you use more advanced systems and technology, how do you think about the use of large language models, large learning models, llms, to support adaptive learning and training on the data . So that way we can have better insights, can move with speed, using this technology in the right way. People will talk a lot about security and we do need to. Technology will always be changing. We have to think about how we lead responsibly, where its not just you making all the decisions but that we are thinking broadly about the need to protect stakeholders, run how we remove how do we ensure that we are collecting truth and facts and using that to make an informed decision, and using that information to make informed decisions in all of our programs to support funding, to support Technical Assistance. Theres a big buildout in the agency to have a more customercentric view and more customercentric support and so that means connecting the dots broadly across programs and i think its very exciting, the potential that that presents for us to be more customercentric in terms of our delivery. Its a different world than we have operated in in the past and it is one that will create many efficiencies if we are able to invest in those improvements and enhancements for our agencies. I will also say, going back to your point around how the agency has traditionally embarked on a Publicprivate Partnership with corporations, i think we do that really well. I would also say that it gives me great enthusiasm if the support that we have broadly from the hill, the white house and also leadership at the agency, and other agencies as well, who we seek the opinions of, is support for our thinking about the broader ecosystem of stakeholders, beyond just large corporations. We work with a network of over 1700 financial entities to provide loans to Small Businesses. On the investment side, we partner with over 300 private funds. Thats a lot of large and small Asset Management firms that have investors working with entrepreneurs, helping them get access to funding and to networks, so there are all sorts of relationships we need to grow and also our partnership with agencies we were we work with in the innovation program. Delighted and looking forward to the opportunities and incredible stories that i anticipate we will see coming out of our recentlyformed partnership or i should say growing our partnership with the Defense Department, our relationship with the office of capital. Not only will be working on sbi opportunities together but now we are going to be alighting on investment programs, the sbic program, to create opportunities for private private funds to work with sba and get capital from it and provide support to the departments to help them get access to subject Matter Experts on these technologies that are critical to our National Security to support Bailey Devries<\/a> is not only to talk about the sba but also how technology and specifically ai, the term we are hearing all the time, are affecting Small Business<\/a> operations. Thanks for joining us. Ms. Devries thank you for it pleasure to be here. Tell our viewers what the office of investment and innovation does at the sba. Bailey its an incredible office and it is an honor and privilege to be temporary steward of this office. Our mission, humbly, is to support ensuring that u. S. Entrepreneurs and Small Business<\/a> owners, founders of startups, can get access to capital both longterm, equity and debt, to start, scale, grow and sustain incredible businesses that create jobs and improve the u. S. Economy more broadly and the human condition more broadly. What is incredibly exciting about our office is it is so much more than just capital. The capital is incredibly important. They say if you dont have capital its hard to do much else. Our office is also responsible for managing and administering Small Business<\/a> Innovation Research<\/a> programs. For those not familiar with those programs, they are programs that we administer and support across 11 participating agencies throughout the federal government that have r d budgets, and we work with those agencies to be supportive of providing contracts and grants to support prototyping, research, r d and commercialization of cuttingedge technologies. Incredible program that has been in existence for over 40 years and provides 4 billion of nondiluted funding every single year to support innovation. And last and certainly not least, we run a portfolio in the Innovation Ecosystems<\/a> program. There are incredible organizations across the public and private sectors, philanthropy and corporates, that work to provide expertise and support talk up and hours that are building innovative support to entrepreneurs that are building innovative companies. We work with the entrepreneurial support organizations, provide them with grants and prizes to fund their operations, and we do that through something called the Accelerator Fund<\/a> competition, so our federal and state Technology Partnership<\/a> program, and we recently assumed responsibility for an exciting portfolio called the Regional Innovation<\/a> collective, which will focus on an industryvertical or Technology Expertise<\/a> in a particular area for Small Business<\/a>es seeking to innovate in those industries. Its a privilege to get to work on so many Exciting Missions<\/a> and to be able to have an impact for so many entrepreneurs and also to support them in building this thing that supports so many jobs for many americans. Mark i am obviously biased since i proceeded you by at least one administration. I think that the programs that the office of investment innovation runs are, bluntly, not marketed well enough, because if the common citizen new the impact of where those funds that are allocated each year through you and your teammates go and the impact they have had not just on technology or start but businesses we use every day, i think we would all be amazed and super thankful for the Publicprivate Partnership<\/a> value and energy that oii brings, but from a larger perspective, the sba has been the center of an unbelievable outpouring of capital during covid into various programs like ppp, etc. Has it calmed down over at hq a little bit since the covid furor and all of the outflow of capital to help Small Business<\/a>es across the u. S. . Bailey excellent question. I will give you a nuanced answer. We have not caught up about this but im actually wearing a dual hat right now. I am serving so im excited to accept to except the invitation to act as the acting officer for Capital Access<\/a>. Im leaving our Capital Access<\/a> division, responsible for one 400 for 140 billion dollars in Capital Loans<\/a> and access based lending and our disaster lending programs, including ppp and the idle program. What i will share is that we are certainly in a different kind a different point in that journey and the incredible thing that i think is such a great opportunity is the Brand Awareness<\/a> of the sba has never been greater across america and with that it presents opportunities for us to extend support across our broader portfolio to meet the needs of Small Business<\/a> owners and entrepreneurs that are launching innovative startups across the country. Mark wow. So you do have many hats and that keeps you busy. I did not know but congratulations or maybe my condolences on adding all of that responsibility. So i know that emergency and disaster funds have been particularly top of the news recently with maui and other arenas. I am sure our listeners dont realize how the sba is so important in some of these Disaster Recovery<\/a> efforts. Give us an example of how the sba has been a real player in people recovering from disaster situations like the recent fire in maui. Bailey its interesting, and i will admit i was naive to this before transitioning from the private sector to work at the sba. We often think of fema immediately when there is a national disaster, but the reality is that a large percentage, and a greater percentage of financial supports actually comes from the sba, and the sba provides lowcost loans to homeowners, Business Owners<\/a>, to be there to support them and recover from national disasters, and in addition to supporting them, getting access to capital that they need quickly to recover from these situations, so our teams, our boots on the ground, provide Technical Assistance<\/a> and support to help them navigate federal programs and local programs and philanthropy. I think it is something that everybody who has worked at the sba can be incredibly proud of, we take a whole of agency approach around recovery. This is a challenging and trying time for Small Business<\/a> owners and americans affected by these disasters. Mark to remind our viewers, of which there are apparently a wonderful number, we will have q a, so if you have a question for bailey, be sure to type it in chat and we will have a curated list of questions i will present to bailey later in our conversation, another 10 or 15 minutes or so. The idea of the sba as, sadly, in my opinion again, i am biased a hidden partner in so many things that happen in Business Development<\/a> and disaster relief. One of the things and i hope i phrase this delicately or in a way that does not sound confrontational, not to you, but the government in general, is sometimes in the government agencies, not so much in the department of defense, which gets the best technology, but the platform for technology and handling data can sometimes be behind the curve in other agencies. In the sba, you interact with Small Business<\/a>es that are often very high growth. I would argue you need to be closer to the tip of the spear on where technology is taking Small Business<\/a>es and how they interact with their marketplaces. And of course Artificial Intelligence<\/a> and Machine Learning<\/a> are the newest zone here. In the view of many, its either satan, its going to destroy everything, or its the visitation of the great savior who will make our lives less drudgery filled, etc. What are some ways that you are you and your teammates are either deploying ai and ml or you are seeing it affect the Small Business<\/a> arena . Bailey so first, i certainly would not take that comment to be a criticism, but an acknowledgment of the large discrepancies that exist in appropriations between different federal agencies. We should be grateful our Defense Department<\/a> is so wellfunded. Our National Security<\/a> is paramount over Everything Else<\/a> working properly in this country. I will say that i think we are all grateful that congress moved with speed in the pandemic in providing funding to support Small Business<\/a>es and with that also came administrative funds for the operations of the agency and i applaud and think we should all applaud the person who, for those who dont know, also served as the chief of staff at the agency during the obama administration. She understood the inner workings of the agency quite well so was able to move swiftly and understood the need Technology Modernization<\/a> and improvement need for Technology Modernization<\/a> and improvement to make sure we could effectively get funding out the door rapidly for ppp to make sure that Small Business<\/a>es did not go under and we were able to save american jobs. That was a massive investment in technology. She has invested heavily in modernizing the sba on the technology front. I think we can also all admit, though, that we are the least funded agency with cabinet level representation, yet the sba has to meet the call and we are privileged to me the call of supporting over 33 million to meet the call of over 33 million Small Business<\/a>es in the u. S. , responsible for creating over 90 over 99 of new jobs every single year in this country, so i cannot think of an agency that needs more funding to ensure we are able to meet this need. One thing is inevitable. We know thats change. Thats change in technology, that we go through periods where change happens very rapidly, the Technology Innovation<\/a> cycle only speeds up, which is exciting, but also presents risks and considerations, and with that requires the need to have good governance, good support, Good Technology<\/a> systems, and to be able to secure technologies that we need to effectively meet the needs of Small Business<\/a>es and also to not introduce security risks. The administration has also taken many steps to improve cybersecurity at the agency by leveling up the role of cybersecurity within the agency, which is tremendous. Additionally, though, she is incredibly customercentric and Technology Forward<\/a> in everything that she does and things about the need for Small Business<\/a>es in terms of how do we help them with cybersecurity. She actually launched an incredible Pilot Program<\/a> to support cybersecurity for Small Business<\/a>es last year. It awarded funding to stay partners to work with Small Business<\/a>es in their region and Just Announced<\/a> more funding and more partners. That way, we can be there to meet their needs. The requirements are high. The complexity continues to grow and so we have to be there, meet them where they are, understand their needs and help them gain access to tools. And theres more. I would say one of the things that is incredibly exciting is the launch of a Publicprivate Partnership<\/a> that we have through the Small Business<\/a> digital alliance, where several large corporations within the innovation economy have partnered with the sba, meta, google, microsoft and others, to provide Small Business<\/a>es and entrepreneurs with the tools that they might need to be able to start adapting and adapting the use of Artificial Intelligence<\/a> tools and technology more broadly, but do so safely and securely. Mark so you mentioned the administrator. I am the regional president of the usable guzman fan club. Im a cardcarrying member. And your point and to your point, not to spend too much time on it, but as we both know, for understanding of the wheels of operational execution within the sba has been, from my perspective, observing as a thirdparty party, have been invaluable in just knowing how to operate the machinery, so to speak, but also to describe the needs of the machinery on the hill and in other funding arenas and then to implement those conversations into improvements. So congratulations to all involved and particularly the administrator. But this idea of engaging large tech companies. You named a few of them there, the big ones. In helping provide toolsets and feedback and productive uses of ai and ml, this seems to be the way that the sba has always led, i think, in Publicprivate Partnership<\/a>s, so i guess the first challenge, i would argue, that you are facing at the sba is the database challenge alone, because you interact with so many customers, so many businesses, so many sbir grant recipients, etc. , just generating the database and tracking the data of who did what, received what, what has worked out and all that, has that been part of the challenge that your Technology Funding<\/a> has helped address . Bailey that Technology Funding<\/a> was specific to ppp. There were many different programs, but there are limitations to it. I think if we lift up and talk about this more broadly in the federal government but also the private sector, we went through a period of time where we collected a lot of data and information. The collective we. What industry and government has done. And with that, its wonderful that theres the information, but it also begs the question around how can you use that information . How can you use it for the right purposes to the benefit of Small Business<\/a>es, to the benefit of policymaking, to have better programs and Better Solutions<\/a> . That is the big challenge, you know, how do you structure the data, how do you use more advanced systems and technology, how do you think about the use of large language models, large learning models, llms, to support adaptive learning and training on the data . So that way we can have better insights, can move with speed, using this technology in the right way. People will talk a lot about security and we do need to. Technology will always be changing. We have to think about how we lead responsibly, where its not just you making all the decisions but that we are thinking broadly about the need to protect stakeholders, run how we remove how do we ensure that we are collecting truth and facts and using that to make an informed decision, and using that information to make informed decisions in all of our programs to support funding, to support Technical Assistance<\/a>. Theres a big buildout in the agency to have a more customercentric view and more customercentric support and so that means connecting the dots broadly across programs and i think its very exciting, the potential that that presents for us to be more customercentric in terms of our delivery. Its a different world than we have operated in in the past and it is one that will create many efficiencies if we are able to invest in those improvements and enhancements for our agencies. I will also say, going back to your point around how the agency has traditionally embarked on a Publicprivate Partnership<\/a> with corporations, i think we do that really well. I would also say that it gives me great enthusiasm if the support that we have broadly from the hill, the white house and also leadership at the agency, and other agencies as well, who we seek the opinions of, is support for our thinking about the broader ecosystem of stakeholders, beyond just large corporations. We work with a network of over 1700 financial entities to provide loans to Small Business<\/a>es. On the investment side, we partner with over 300 private funds. Thats a lot of large and small Asset Management<\/a> firms that have investors working with entrepreneurs, helping them get access to funding and to networks, so there are all sorts of relationships we need to grow and also our partnership with agencies we were we work with in the innovation program. Delighted and looking forward to the opportunities and incredible stories that i anticipate we will see coming out of our recentlyformed partnership or i should say growing our partnership with the Defense Department<\/a>, our relationship with the office of capital. Not only will be working on sbi opportunities together but now we are going to be alighting on investment programs, the sbic program, to create opportunities for private private funds to work with sba and get capital from it and provide support to the departments to help them get access to subject Matter Experts<\/a> on these technologies that are critical to our National Security<\/a> to support American Investment<\/a> in technology such as trusted ai, for example, but also quantum computing, you know, future g, hypersonic, renewable energy. And these are not just things that the department of defense is seeking to procure. It is the technology that we want to build here in the u. S. To have jobs created in the u. S. To support the innovation here in the u. S. So again, we are leading change, not responding to change now responding to change, and we have leaders across the public and private sector that are informing how we use these technologies so they are improving the human condition and protecting our country. Mark to remind our viewers, we will have some q a. I will be reflecting some of the questions that people put in the chat in just a minute and we have a couple already teed up, but before we get to those, and they are pretty predictable, as you might expect, bailey, but im expected in one of the sort of the biggest worries that you keep hearing around Artificial Intelligence<\/a> and Machine Learning<\/a>, that it will eradicate a whole chunk of jobs. And i know that jobs and job growth the sba has always proudly carried the banner that Small Business<\/a>es are in fact the engine of job creation and maintenance in growth in the u. S. , far beyond the megacorporations, so this idea of ai, this sort of carnivorous engine that will take away all of these jobs that people currently employ, are there ways that you and your colleagues at the department of labor or other agencies are paying attention to some of the sectors that may be most at risk as ai is deployed more and more deeply into our society . Bailey sometimes its helpful to think about parallel things. We think about the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution. You think about the use of Computing Power<\/a> broadly. In different periods of time, this has led to changes in terms of the types of jobs that people have. It would be insensitive to say, gosh, you know, this will not lead to any job loss. Throughout history, we have seen that certain types of jobs have been replaced, but consistently, again and again, what we have seen is that as we see technology improvements, if human beings, governments and corporations make the right choices about the use of technology and to what objective it is aimed at, it leads to more inclusive equity. It leads to opportunities for people to develop skills, create new companies, create new Job Opportunities<\/a> through these things, so through generations, we see new opportunities presented for the next generation that did not exist before. You think about people being on farms and working in the fields and then going to work in factories and move to cities and then creating networks in cities that lead to other opportunities. It is a shift and we will always be evolving, adapting, but the key is that we focus on how these technologies can improve the human condition, which means creating opportunities for purposeful work and Economic Growth<\/a> and more inclusive equity in the process. Mark well said, and as i used to tell people, the shift happens. This idea of job loss, job creation, i think your analogy is spot on. There are many analogies that are parallel to the one you just suggested an immediate space, where i spent a lot of my time in suggested in the media space, where i spent a lot of my time. Everything was going to kill the prior media. It generates fresh perspective, opportunity and often revenue, but one thing that would be actually, a question from the crowd, crowd sourcing a question, so to speak, is that ai and ml is a natural source of funding for start ups in ai and a mill startups in ai and ml. I see this a lot. Companies that have sprung up and are either gathering or pursuing capital for ai or technology surrounding ai or llm management, Machine Learning<\/a>. It should be an easy question. What are some ways these startups can approach the sba for ms. Devries my statistics may have changed recently, but i believe in the first half of the year over 40 billion went into funding Vc Backed Companies<\/a> nai. Anything from chatgpt that was initially 1 billion, a massive amount of funding. I would say in many ways think about this like the changes we have seen in terms of the use of Computer Software<\/a> and the growth. There are so many different applications and them of these companies, discrete issues and markets. Some will be looking at broader opportunities and applications. When answering your questions about funding from sba and talking about a partnership under the fdic cortical technology initiative, trusted ai is one of the 14 Critical Technology<\/a> areas called out in this initiative. Whats really compelling is due to several Regulatory Reform<\/a>s we have advanced in the program. Reform to ensure that fda could effectively provide matching capital to vc funds. We provide a loan to a fund to match private capital that is invested in the fund. We dont take any profit which can make the return profile more compelling. There will be opportunities for funds that are focused in this area to apply for licenses under the initiative and not only get funding from us which could provide Downside Protection<\/a> to their funds and improve the return profile, but they get value and support through the relationship with the Defense Department<\/a> and access to subject Matter Experts<\/a> and phds in the department. That is an elegant and exciting solution that we are seeking to advance for businesses in this area. Its a Broad Partnership<\/a> with lots of stakeholders but that way, they can have activity into the federal government and Defense Department<\/a> to understand ways that we are thinking about advancing these technologies and objectives in these cases. Beyond that, many of these companies in addition to taking Equity Funding<\/a> from Venture Capital<\/a> funds, often take venture debt. We have seen that Market Experience<\/a> some major challenges since the collapse of Silicon Valley<\/a> bank and other primary venture lenders over this past spring and summer. What is exciting is that the administrator noticed some interesting patterns with ppp. What did we hear from industry . On both sides of the aisle. What we heard is that it was wonderful that these emergency funds were able to get out to many Small Business<\/a>es, but we were leaving behind the innovation economy of Small Business<\/a>es and startups because of a longstanding regulation related to affiliation and control. That considered a Small Business<\/a> if you have taken on Equity Funding<\/a> from private funds, you are not eligible to get funding. You have to have bootstrapped the business and able to sell fund in order to get funds from the fda. Can we just say, that is great for those businesses but what if you are not independently wealthy . What if you have to go and seek funding in the form of equity . To get your business launched because you didnt have a bank account large enough to support employing people and growing that business. It seems a shame that we would not provide federal loans to businesses. Many thanks to those who spoke up to make sure we find a way to make sure these companies dont go under these companies the drive innovation and create the vast majority of new jobs in this country. So something was put in place to make sure those businesses could get access to ppp loans. In this past spring, we advanced Regulatory Reform<\/a> to remove the same restriction on affiliation control and are working Capital Loan Program<\/a> and our assetbased loan program. Why does it matter . It matters a great deal now because startups innovation economy businesses do not have the same level of access to loans after the collapse of many of the venture lenders. The opportunity for this business is now to get a low cost government guaranteed loan from a wide network of lenders in communities and regions and nationally could be transformative absolutely. Particularly in this environment. Mark as rahm emanuel once said, never let good prices go to waste. Its tragic, but to your examples that covid unveiled or revealed some of the handcuffs that or whatever reason they were originally put in. They had handcuffed the flow of capital those that for reasons that made sense at the time. I was going to read a question that just came across that was of particular interest to many on the call today. Are there any concerns about the risks ai might pose to minority owned businesses or their communities that might make them hesitant to adopt Ai Technology<\/a> that could prove beneficial and if so, what policy measures if any do you think might help support those Business Owners<\/a> ai adoption . Ms. Devries its an excellent question in that with changes in technology broadly and with ai, he is that we have to figure out how to advance technology responsibly so the objectives are clear, that it is not benefiting a few, that we are considering the needs of communities and stakeholders loudly, the biases are not built into the system. Its incredibly important that we figure out the government framework for that way that can be trust. Because if there is trust and understanding of the framework and objectives and that the needs and opinions of a broad base of stakeholders are considered, we will be able to advance the technology for the greater good of humankind. This level of coordination is so necessary and critical. We dont want to see is the technology in the hands of a few making decisions for all. We need to figure out how to democratize these tools broadly and responsibly to benefit communities in different industries. I am really optimistic about the way that the administration broadly is thinking about this and how we are engaging and focused on Building Trust<\/a> and responsible development and also the moves that the administrator has made to our special Alliance Partnership<\/a> and also through our network of partners to make sure we are providing the resources and tools to communities broadly and not just a subset. Mark my last question is kind of lightning round but an unfair one. One of the things about ai that is most compelling is pattern recognition taking large amounts of data and reaching conclusions. Obviously, you and your colleagues the ploy lots of capital to different types of businesses in different places, different silos of business, different ownership structures. Im sure someone will say to you why dont you use ai to figure out what kinds of businesses do best and what geographies and ownership structures almost in a predictive way. Is that on the horizon or will you remain effectively above the conclusive fray of deciding what kinds of is this is get capital from the sba . Ms. Devries its a moral and ethical question as well as the question of the bounds of Technology Today<\/a> and in the future. Theres the term they talk about the fact that we have an alignment problem. Unlike when you are using structured data only and you are doing rulesbased development with large data sets and the use of neural networks, you dont know necessarily how certain conclusions were reached by ai. You have information revealed to you. There is a need and i dont see the need going away anytime soon for human judgment, ethics, morality and principles. Data is interesting to analyze and inform just because we get certain information sent to us doesnt mean that its right. We should consider information, but we also need to check and we need to layer she meant intelligence we need to layer he meant intelligence. Human intelligence. We are nowhere near the potential of the human brain yet. Mark well said. It has been an honor to have you with us. She runs the office of investment innovation amongst many other offices at the sba. We really enjoyed our conversation today and on behalf of the Bipartisan Policy Center<\/a> i want to say thank you for joining us. Ms. Devries it is a privilege passing the time with you and a number of other leaders and stewards for a short time. Its a Great Mission<\/a> that started with the oii to ensure the capital and support was going to small innovative businesses and Small Business<\/a>es broadly across the country to make sure they can grow and create jobs. Thank you for all you did before i was in the seat. 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