Tech Diplomacy Now: Shaping the Future of Technology: A New Strategy
The intersection of technology, foreign policy, and the news you need to know
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Top News of the Week
Announcements
Latest News
Technology Strategy and Policy
Artificial Intelligence
Telecommunications Networks and Infrastructure
Critical Minerals
Synthetic Biology
Quantum
Advanced Aerospace Technology
Semiconductors and Microelectronics
Energy and Climate
Opinion and Commentary
The Last Word
Top News of the Week – Setting Standards: the U.S. announces a strategy for shaping the future of technology
Last week, the White House unveiled its national strategy to ensure that international technical standards for critical and emerging technologies remain aligned with the values of transparency and openness. For the past decade, countries like the PRC have sought to shape the development of technical standards by influencing ‘Standards Developing Organizations’ like 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) for wireless communications.
Most importantly, the White House prioritized specific technologies for U.S. competitiveness and national security, which should serve as a roadmap for technology diplomacy with like-minded countries.
Included Within The National Strategy:
Semiconductors and Microelectronics, including Computing, Memory, and Storage Technologies, which affect every corner of the global economy, society, and government, and which power a panoply of innovations and capabilities;
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, which promise transformative technologies and scientific breakthroughs across industries, but which must be developed in a trustworthy and risk-managed manner;
Biotechnologies, which will affect the health, agricultural, and industrial sectors of all nations, and which will need to be used safely and securely to support the health of our citizens, animals, and environment;
Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services, which are a largely invisible utility for technology and infrastructure, including the electrical power grid, communications infrastructure and mobile devices, all modes of transportation, precision agriculture, weather forecasting, and emergency response;
Digital Identity Infrastructure and Distributed Ledger Technologies, which increasingly affect a range of key economic sectors;
Quantum Information Technologies, which leverage quantum mechanics for the storage, transmission, manipulation, computing, or measurement of information, with major national security and economic implications.
Background reading:
United States Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology – May 4, 2023
China’s '2035 Standards' quest to dominate global standard-setting – Hinrich Foundation, February 21, 2023
Setting the Standards: Locking in China’s Technological Influence – NBR, March 1, 2022
China’s Standard-Setting Agenda: A Conversation with Emily de La Bruyère – CSIS, June 30, 2020
Announcements
Join The Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, Today, May 11 at 2 p.m. ET for an exclusive conversation between Purdue University President, Mung Chiang, and Keith Krach, chairman and co-founder of the Krach Institute and former U.S. Under Secretary of State.
This engaging discussion will explore the relationship critical and emerging technologies share in securing freedom as the Krach Institute and Purdue University continue to expand their role at the forefront of technologies critical to American foreign policy. Topics include: 5G, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, clean energy, biotech, digital currency, autonomous vehicles, space, hypersonics, and quantum computing.
Click the registration link HERE to register and join the livestream
Latest News
The Global Development Finance Agenda and the G7 Hiroshima Summit – CSIS, May 3, 2023
U.S. Chamber Statement on Concerns Over PRC Investment Climate – U.S. Chamber of Commerce, April 28, 2023
Allies eye talks to form trilateral security forum at G7 meeting – Korea Times, May 8, 2023
Technology Strategy and Policy
How top Silicon Valley investor Sequoia bankrolls China’s tech – Times of London, May 6, 2023
U.S. Sanctions Drive Chinese Firms to Advance AI Without Latest Chips – WSJ, May 7, 2023
Volunteer Force: U.S. Tech Companies and Their Contributions in Ukraine – CSET, May 1, 2023
The Untold Story of the Boldest Supply-Chain Hack Ever – Wired, May 2, 2023
The attackers were in thousands of corporate and government networks. They might still be there now. Behind the scenes of the SolarWinds investigation.
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI’s regulatory troubles are only just beginning – The Verge, May 5, 2023
A curious person’s guide to artificial intelligence – WaPo, May 7, 2023
No Business Plan? No Problem. ChatGPT Spawns an Investor Gold Rush in AI – WSJ, May 8, 2023
He wrote a book on a rare subject. Then a ChatGPT replica appeared on Amazon. – WaPo, May 5, 2023
Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build – MIT Technology Review, May 2, 2023
Telecommunications Networks and Infrastructure
Nazak Nikakhtar on the Legal Paths for Banning TikTok – The Wire China, May 7, 2023
Apple is a Chinese company. Will China really allow Apple to slink away? – Mac daily News, May 3, 2023
Amazon’s Satellite-Internet Ambitions Move Closer to Reality – WSJ, April 25, 2023
The tech giant still needs to mass-produce satellites and get them into orbit, but it expects to begin offering service next year..
Critical Minerals
A new material could enable more efficient magnet-based computer memory – Stanford News, May 5, 2023
Why the Fight for ‘Critical Minerals’ Is Heating Up – Bloomberg, May 5, 2023
Over more than a century, oil companies have developed a vast industrial network to extract, refine and deliver their product to customers around the world. Sourcing the materials needed to build an alternative, less carbon-intensive economy presents a whole new set of challenges.
China has tackled these successfully for more than a decade, making it the undisputed leader in the “critical minerals” used in electric vehicle batteries, solar panels and wind-turbine magnets. If the US and Europe are going to have a chance of challenging its dominance in such clean technologies, they need to catch up fast.
Synthetic Biology
UK biotech start-up raises $130mn to solve capacity bottleneck – FT, May 8, 2023
How biotech and collaboration can enable sustainable animal production – McKinsey, May 5, 2023
Why India's promising biotech industry needs more attention – Economic Times, May 6, 2023
Quantum
Quantum computing could break the internet. This is how – Financial Times, May 3, 2023
To Restrict, or Not to Restrict, That Is the Quantum Question – CNAS, May 1, 2023
Advanced Aerospace Technology
A satellite-cellular merger could be the next revolutionary tech innovation – The Hill, May 8, 2023
Nuview emerges from stealth with plans to map the Earth using lidar– TechCrunch, May 4, 2023
Semiconductors and Microelectronics
China’s New Strategy for Waging the Microchip Tech War – CSIS, May 3. 2023
Samsung Foundry Vows to Surpass TSMC Within Five Years – AnandTech, May 8, 2023
China Poured Nearly $2 Billion Into Its Own Semiconductor Industry Last Year – Tom’s Hardware, May 8, 2023
Germany in Talks to Limit Export of Chip Chemicals to China – Bloomberg, April 27, 2023
Energy and Climate
AI could pose ‘more urgent’ threat to humanity than climate change, Geoffrey Hinton says – The Globe and Mail, May 8, 2023
The hottest new climate technology is bricks – MIT Technology Review, April 10, 2023
Jigar Shah Is Using His $400 Billion Checkbook to Rapidly Scale Up Clean Tech – Time, May 4, 2023
The US truck industry is in hydrogen fever– Handelsblatt, May 7, 2023
Opinion and Commentary
TikTok spied on me. Why? – Financial Times, May 5, 2023
The Dangers of the Global Spread of China’s Digital Authoritarianism – CNAS, May 4, 2023
Time for Competitive Realism – International Economy, May 2023The Last Word
The Last Word
“AI, like any other technological paradigm shift, is going to benefit humanity in the long run in terms of productivity, quality of life, human progress.” - Keith Krach, Chairman of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue
About: Tech Diplomacy Now
The nonpartisan Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue is focused on securing freedom by accelerating the innovation and adoption of trusted technology.
The Institute is the preeminent global authority on Tech Diplomacy, integrating tech expertise, Silicon Valley strategies, and foreign policy tools to build the Global Tech Trust Network of governments, companies and individuals united around a set of shared trust principles and a common mission to ensure that technology advances freedom