Happy New Year!
Today in Washington, members of Congress are set to return to work. Lawmakers in both parties have shown interest in legislating on many areas of tech policy, though it remains to be seen if bipartisan consensus can be reached on areas such as AI, data privacy, and cybersecurity. It is worth noting that at the end of last year, the previous Congress united to support many tech measures in the National Defense Authorization Act, including R&D funding, AI training for service members, and funding for Regional Tech Hubs.
In the coming weeks, VFI will provide more information about the emerging tech policy landscape in the new Congress. Thank you for reading.
This Week in Washington
- CNN: Just before the holidays, the Senate approved a temporary spending plan that will provide government funding through March 2025. The plan had to be cut down to receive approval, which resulted in funding being removed from the package for bills related to AI, deepfakes, and the criminalization of non-consensual intimate imagery.
- Politico: President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to delay the imminent TikTok ban in the U.S. to provide time to strike a deal to maintain the platform’s U.S. operations and potentially prevent the Court from having to answer any questions that challenge the First Amendment.
- FedScoop: The General Services Administration (GSA) awarded its Polaris small business governmentwide acquisition contract for IT services to 102 vendors. Polaris will focus on securing IT services, such as immersive technology and AI, for agencies across the federal government and will have no award ceiling.
Article Summary
- StateScoop: Pittsburgh’s public transportation system was temporarily disrupted after the city’s transit authority was hit with a ransomware attack. The transit authority activated its Cyber Incident Response Team, and it remains unclear if any information was compromised.
- Associated Press: The cybercriminals who hacked Rhode Island’s system for health and benefits programs have released files to a site on the dark web. According to Gov. Daniel McKee, this was a scenario that RI had been preparing for and the state is working to generate a list of the impacted individuals.
- WHYY: Delaware Gov. John Carney announced that the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program is set to provide the state with a pivotal $17.4 million investment to deliver significant high-speed broadband. The money will help more than 5,600 unserved and underserved homes and businesses throughout the state, and helps position Delaware as a key leader in national connectivity.
- New York Times: As the utilization of AI becomes more widely adopted across the economy, once-struggling cities in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and South are poised to be among the unlikely winners of the next AI hot spots. According to a study conducted by two labor economists, the attributes of these metropolitan areas make them well-positioned to leverage AI in a way that helps them become more productive and draws more people into those areas.
Featured Podcast
- Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith
According to Norma Kamali, an influential global fashion designer, AI may not have a soul or passion the way a person does, but with some human help, the technology can be extraordinarily creative. This realization occurred to Kamali after sheer curiosity led her to take an AI class at MIT and from there, she learned how the technology could advance her design studio. Tune in to hear how Kamali creates AI prompts for fashion design and learn about the potential future of AI education in fashion. (“Norma Kamali: From canvas to code, redefining creativity with AI” – December 9, 2024)