Addressing Challenges at the Intersection of Civil Rights and Technology
Summary
Modern civil rights challenges are technically complex. Today, decisions made by algorithms, rather than people, limit opportunities for historically disadvantaged groups in critical areas like housing, employment, and credit. The next administration should establish a broad, new task force, led by the U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO), to address issues at the intersection of civil rights and emerging technologies. The task force should encourage federal agencies to prioritize regulatory and enforcement activities where tech and civil rights overlap, and to increase temporary exchanges of staff between agencies to facilitate cross-pollination of civil rights and tech expertise. The Administration should also prioritize appointment of key agency personnel who are committed to addressing tech/civil rights challenges.
In an industry with such high fixed costs, the Chinese state’s subsidization gives such firms a great advantage and imperils U.S. competitiveness and national security. To curtail Chinese legacy chip dominance, the United States should weaponize its monopoly on electronic design automation software.
The technical advances fueled by leading-edge nodes are vital to our long-term competitiveness, but they too rely on legacy devices.
To tackle AI risks in grant spending, grant-making agencies should adopt trustworthy AI practices in their grant competitions and start enforcing them against reckless grantees.
As people become less able to distinguish between what is real and what is fake, it has become easier than ever to be misled by synthetic content, whether by accident or with malicious intent. This makes advancing alternative countermeasures, such as technical solutions, more vital than ever before.