Innovation Files: Where Tech Meets Public Policy

Data-informed and evidence-based decision making can drive optimum outcomes in local governments. Rob and Jackie sat down with Rochelle Haynes, managing director of What Works Cities, to discuss how technology and innovation are being used in cities to equitably deliver services and solve problems.

• Rochelle Haynes, “How Cities Can Harness the Power of AI in 2024,” (What Works Cities, 2024)
• Ash Johnson. “Balancing Privacy and Innovation in Smart Cities and Communities,” (ITIF, 2023).

Europe has been enormously unsuccessful in creating substantial digital businesses for over three decades. Rob and Jackie sat down with David Evans, chairman of Market Platform Dynamics, to discuss why it’s imperative that Europe ends this ‘digital winter’.

• David S. Evans, “Why Europe Must End Its 30-Year Digital Winter to Ensure Its Long-Run Future,” (SSRN, April 2024).
• Robert D. Atkinson and David Moschella. Technology Fears and Scapegoats: 40 Myths about Privacy, Jobs, AI, and Today’s Innovation Economy, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).

It’s easy to get excited about new breakthroughs, but the real power lies in diffusing technological advances throughout the entire economy. Rob and Jackie sat down with Jeffrey Ding, Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University, to discuss how technological revolutions influence competition and the implications for the United States and China.

• Jeffrey Ding. Technology and the Rise of Great Powers: How Diffusion Shapes Economic Competition, (Princeton University Press, 2024).
• Robert D. Atkinson. The Past and Future of America’s Economy: Long Waves of Innovation that Power Cycles of Growth, (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005).
• Victor Appleton. Tom Swift Sr. Series, (Stratemeyer Syndicate, published between 1910 and 1941).

Over the last several years, public opinion on technology and the use of data has shifted from excitement to skepticism to fear. Rob and Jackie sat down with Daniel Castro, Vice President of ITIF and Director of the Center for Data Innovation, to discuss the negative effect of techlash on human outcomes.

• Robert D. Atkinson and David Moschella. Technology Fears and Scapegoats: 40 Myths about Privacy, Jobs, AI, and Today’s Innovation Economy, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).
• Robert D. Atkinson, Doug Brake, Daniel Castro, Colin Cunliff, Joe Kennedy, Michael McLaughlin, Alan McQuinn, and Joshua New, “A Policymaker’s Guide to the “Techlash” —What It Is and Why It’s a Threat to Growth and Progress,” (ITIF, October 2019)

The future will be much improved if society fights the fear of technology. Rob and Jackie sat down with Jim Pethokoukis, Senior Fellow and DeWitt Wallace Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, to discuss how the sci-fi fantasy of the future isn’t as far off as we think. 

• James Pethokoukis. The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised, (Center Street, 2023).
• Robert D. Atkinson and David Moschella. Technology Fears and Scapegoats: 40 Myths about Privacy, Jobs, AI, and Today’s Innovation Economy, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).

• Robert D. Atkinson, Doug Brake, Daniel Castro, Colin Cunliff, Joe Kennedy, Michael McLaughlin, Alan McQuinn, and Joshua New, “A Policymaker’s Guide to the “Techlash” —What It Is and Why It’s a Threat to Growth and Progress,” (ITIF, October 2019)
• Hodan Omaar, “No, We Aren’t in an Oppenheimer Moment for AI,” (ITIF, July 2023)

Climate change is a global problem, with two polarized viewpoints making it difficult to find a solution. Rob and Jackie sat down with Robin Gaster, Director of Research at ITIF's Center for Clean Energy Innovation, to discuss how price/performance parity in green technologies can bridge the gap between left and right viewpoints on clean energy. 

• Robin Gaster, Robert D. Atkinson, and Ed Rightor, “Beyond Force: A Realist Pathway Through the Green Transition,” (ITIF, July 2023).

• Robin Gaster, “A Realist Approach to Hydrogen,” (ITIF, January 2024).

The past few years have seen a remarkable rise in the quality and quantity of deepfakes. Rob and Jackie discussed the rise of deepfakes with Ryan Long, Vice-Chairman of the California Lawyers Association, Licensing and Technology Transactions Group, Intellectual Property Section, and explored how to harness this technology responsibly while preventing abuse.

• Henry A Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher. The Age of AI: And Our Human Future, (Little, Brown and Company, 2021).
• Megan Garber, “The Man Who Saved the World by Doing Absolutely Nothing,” (The Atlantic, September 2013).

• Daniel Castro, “Joe Biden Did Not Approve This Fake Message,” (ITIF, March 2024).
• Daniel Castro, “Blame Lawmakers, Not AI, for Failing to Prevent the Fake Explicit Images of Taylor Swift,” (ITIF, January 2024).

The term ‘supply chain’ is relatively new, but the activities involved are not as new as we think. Rob and Jackie sat down with Yossi Sheffi, Director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, to discuss the complex history of supply chains and how technology and AI will continue to evolve supply chain processes in the future.

• Yossi Sheffi. The Magic Conveyor Belt: Supply Chains, A.I., and the Future of Work, (MIT CTL Media, 2023).

• Stephen Ezell and Stefan Koester, “Transforming Global Trade and Development With Digital Technologies,” (ITIF, May 2023).

Amidst the burgeoning advancements in autonomous vehicles (AVs), striking a balance between expectation and reality emerges as a challenge. Rob and Jackie sat down with Richard Mudge, president and founder of Compass Transportation and Technology, to discuss how innovations in the world of AVs can affect safety, productivity, and job creation.

• Michigan.gov. “I-94 Connected & Automated Vehicle (CAV) Corridor Proposed Project,” Michigan Department of Transportation.

• Aswin Prabhakar. “Logic, Not Emotions, Should Guide Autonomous Vehicle Deployment,” (Center for Data Innovation, December 2023).

While quantum computing technology is maturing more slowly than other innovations, its potential is vast. Rob and Jackie sat down with Murray Thom, vice president of product management at D-Wave, to discuss quantum computing applications already being put into place, and possible advancements in the future. 

• Hodan Omaar. “The U.S. Approach to Quantum Policy,” (Center for Data Innovation, October 2023). 
• Congress.gov. "Text - H.R.6227 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): National Quantum Initiative Act," December 21, 2018.

• “Quantum Computing: The Case for a National Task Force,” (Center for Data Innovation, February 2022).
• Hodan Omaar. “What Should Congress Include in The Next National Quantum Initiative Act?,” (Center for Data Innovation, May 2023).