Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies

From its beginnings nine years ago C-PET has determined to think long-term and to think seriously about the implications of emerging technologies. We aren’t partisan either politically or in our disposition toward technology – there is no bias either “pro” or “anti” tech among our many distinguished fellows and advisers and board members. Their personal and professional convictions cover the waterfront. But what they have in common is a dual commitment – to the conviction that emerging technology impacts will be far more important to the American and global future than almost anyone in the policy world recognizes, and to the related conviction that it does us no good at all to believe naively that this will all be good news. If we would be serious about the future we need to be grown-up about its potential challenges. So twin developments at the University of Cambridge (full disclosure: my alma mater), and one closer to home, are of special interest to us, and we believe they

On July 7, 2016, The Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies held our 2016 President Election Teleconference series featuring Gary Shapiro, the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Member of the Executive Board of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Below is a lightly edited transcript of the teleconference and should not be quoted without approval. Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies Teleconference with Nigel Cameron and Gary Shapiro. Nigel Cameron: So let me welcome others and thank you for joining us for this teleconference, by the Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies Washington DC, we are very glad you have joined us. We have up to an hour and with us, our guest is Gary Shapiro who is president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), formerly the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group with 2,200 or so members and we are delighted to have him with us. Before we invite him to speak, I’ll mention the next two calls we have

Yesterday’s much-anticipated announcement from Elon Musk of an outline plan to take humans to Mars deserves a good deal more attention that it has been getting. It comes at a time of deep crisis for American democracy, when the very best that our political parties have on offer, aside from standard-issue gridlock on The Hill, is a pair of Medicare-eligible candidates with agendas deeply locked into the past. Along comes a man with his eyes fixed firmly on the future. And yet he’s also a man developing innovative and successful businesses for today. And he’s also a man not unaware that there are negatives lurking in our passage up the Moore’s Law curve – he signed on to the infamous AI warning letter with Stephen Hawking et al. (a move that earned them a bizarre and frankly ridiculous rebuke from one of our fellow-DC think tanks with the award of Luddite of the Year – for daring to be candid about technology risk, something we need more not less of from our tech gurus). His v