TechTank in 2018: Silicon Valley oversight, GDPR, new research, and more

Technology policy continued to make international headlines in 2018. From Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation to congressional testimony from tech CEOs, Brookings scholars and staff have covered a number of this year’s most important developments on the TechTank blog. It was also another busy year for research in the Center for Technology Innovation, where our scholars and staff have published new research on artificial intelligence, the future of work, and R&D investment in treatments for deadly diseases. As the year ends, look back at some of our leading blog posts about 2018 news and research.

General Data Protection Regulation

On May 25, the European Union’s sweeping General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect, establishing a set of digital privacy rules that apply to any organization that collects data on EU citizens. Brookings scholars and staff outlined the effects of GDPR for U.S. privacy regulation, the digital economy, and more:

• The General Data Protection Regulation sets privacy by default
  By Tom Wheeler
• A case against the General Data Protection Regulation
  By Niam Yaraghi
• Why nonprofit organizations should prepare for the General Data Protection Regulation
  By Ona Donsunmu and Christie Yang

Artificial intelligence and emerging technology

Research on artificial intelligence was a major focus for the Center for Technology Innovation in 2018. CTI scholars also also contributed to an ongoing essay series about the impacts of AI across different policy areas. Here’s a small sample of this year’s TechTank coverage of AI:

• Artificial intelligence and the future of geopolitics
  By John Villasenor
• Artificial intelligence and data analytics in India
  By Shamika Ravi and Darrell West
• The state of self-driving car laws across the U.S.
  By Jack Karsten and Darrell West

Public opinion surveys

In 2018, TechTank launched a series of public opinion surveys on artificial intelligence emerging technologies. Using Google Surveys, we collected responses from thousands of adult internet users in the U.S. on topics including facial recognition, e-commerce, and driverless cars. Below are some of the results from this ongoing series.

• Brookings survey finds only 21 percent willing to ride in a self-driving car
  By Darrell West
• Brookings survey finds divided views on artificial intelligence for warfare, but support rises if adversaries are developing it
  By Darrell West
• Brookings survey finds worries over AI impact on jobs and personal privacy, concern U.S. will fall behind China
  By Darrell West

Future of work

One day, AI and other emerging technologies may automate many tasks currently done by human workers. TechTank posts examined what that will mean for major employment sectors, our nation’s politics, and training workers for this new economic reality:

• Amazon Go store offers quicker checkout for greater data collection
  By Jack Karsten and Darrell West
• Will robots and AI take your job? The economic and political consequences of automation
  By Darrell West
• Why we should train workers like we train machine learning algorithms
  By Makada Henry-Nickie

Technology company oversight

In March, news broke that the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica used a personality quiz app to access the data of millions of Facebook users without their consent. This added to scrutiny of the tech industry over online political ads in the 2016 presidential campaign and a perceived anti-conservative bias in search results and social media. Explore some of TechTank’s coverage of these complex issues:

• Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress. What comes next?
  By Nicol Turner-Lee
• Filling the gaps in US data privacy laws
  By Cameron Kerry
• Regulating free speech on social media is dangerous and futile
  By Niam Yaraghi

Private Sector Global Health R&D Project

The Center for Technology Innovation concluded a two-year project designed to increase incentives for R&D investment in treatments for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and neglected tropic diseases. You can find all the research here, and read about some of the project’s findings in the blog posts below:

• How profitable are HIV drugs?
  By Jake Schneider and Darrell West
• Who’s investing in health care R&D?
  By Liz Sablich
• Less than four percent of private investment in health R&D targets the developing world
  By Liz Sablich