Microsoft General Counsel Hossein Nowbar recently published a blog laying out five key principles for policymakers and the intellectual property community to consider as IP rules evolve for a changing era of technology that includes AI. He writes, “[W]e need an IP system that promotes pragmatic and practical mechanisms with a focus on how the system can enable innovation, not impede it.” Technology has great potential to help address critical environmental, health, economic, and other societal challenges, and our IP system “can play a critical role in removing friction to innovation.” We encourage you to read the blog on Microsoft on the Issues, “Making IP a force-enabler for solving big problems.”
You’ll find our roundup of tech policy news below, along with a featured podcast. Thank you.
This Week in Washington
- POLITICO: Tech privacy advocates frustrated by failures on Capitol Hill are looking to mine state capitals for legislative victories. A broad bipartisan federal privacy bill that died in Congress last year has quickly become the template for a statehouse-by-statehouse campaign to enact tough new restrictions on how Americans’ personal data can be mined and shared.
- The Hill: The Defense Department’s U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) launched an investigation this week following a report that said that the unit had an exposed server that was leaking sensitive but unclassified emails online.
- Fierce Telecom: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel revealed states and government entities submitted 1.11 million location challenges to the first version of its new and improved broadband map.
- Washington Post: The Biden administration needs to take numerous steps to deconflict and organize the proliferation of cybersecurity regulations, according to a report from a presidential advisory committee.
- Nextgov: Lawmakers sent a letter requesting that the Office of Intelligence and Analysis within the Department of Homeland Security work in tandem with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to provide more information on domestic attacks on critical infrastructure linked to extremism activity and beliefs.
- StateScoop: The U.S. Treasury last week announced the latest recipients of the Capital Project Fund, sending a combined $354.9 million to Arizona, Tennessee and Wyoming. The three states are the latest recipients of pandemic relief funding to build broadband infrastructure in areas that lack adequate service.
- AP News: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo called on the country to unite around a $52 billion effort to restore the U.S. as the world leader in advanced computer chips, saying it will require training of tens of thousands of workers.
- CyberScoop: A forthcoming White House cybersecurity strategy document aims to force large companies to shoulder greater responsibility for designing secure products and to redesign digital ecosystems to be more secure, according to Camille Stewart Gloster, the deputy national cyber director for technology and ecosystem security.
- Washington Post: The Federal Trade Commission is launching an Office of Technology to aid efforts to rein in the fast-moving tech sector, which has emerged as a major focus under Democratic Chair Lina Khan.
- Bleeping Computer: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) revealed that Americans lost almost $8.8 billion to various types of scams in 2022, following a significant surge of over 30% more lost to fraud compared to the previous year.
Article Summary
- Nextgov: How does ChatGPT differ from human intelligence? The new software learns differently than people.
- CyberScoop: A slew of new reports about vulnerabilities in operational technology systems are raising fresh concerns about potential weaknesses inside U.S. critical infrastructure organizations.
- CNBC: Cybersecurity executives are under increased pressure to improve efficiencies and are often expected to do more with less. At the same time, they’re expected to keep pace with cyber threats and increasingly complex attack surfaces requiring CISOs to rethink their approach to investments in tools and services.
Featured Podcast
The New York Times
- Hard Fork Podcast
TikTok is opening up a “Transparency and Accountability Center” to try to win over skeptics. Is the company’s strategy working? Then, the origin story of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and how the company kicked off an A.I. arms race. Plus: The co-founder of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, hopes to make a “TikTok for text.” (A Trip to TikTok, ChatGPT’s Origin Story and Kevin Systrom’s Comeback – February 3, 2023)