— What we’re watching at CES 2020: Silicon Valley moves fast and disrupts. Washington talks a lot about reining in tech. This week, leaders of both worlds converge — but are the D.C. power players coming with threats of investigations and regulation, or will they play nice?
— AI can’t escape the bias trap: The industry still hasn’t figured out how to talk about the problem of baked-in discrimination in technologies like facial recognition — and whether regulators should step in.
Story Continued Below
— Darrell Issa talks tech: In an interview with POLITICO, the former California lawmaker weighs in on debates over AI, online liability and facial recognition. And he discusses his hopes to regain a committee gavel if he returns to Congress.
GOOD EVENING AND WELCOME TO POLITICO TECH AT CES, our first-ever pop-up newsletter from the Las Vegas gathering formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show. CES is the center of the technology universe right now, with more than 170,000 attendees descending on the desert to demo their products and discuss innovation. It comes at a pivotal moment. We kick off 2020 with the U.S. tech sector under historic political scrutiny, as lawmakers and regulators in Washington, almost every U.S. state and national governments across the globe making noise about checking the industry’s power.
SCORES OF HIGH-PROFILE D.C. FIGURES, from Ivanka Trump to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joe Simons will be on tech’s temporary home turf to discuss next steps on issues like privacy, 5G, transportation and antitrust enforcement — or, in the case of Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, to celebrate the U.S. as “The Greatest Innovative Nation.”
WE’RE YOUR HOSTS, NANCY SCOLA AND CRISTIANO LIMA, who promise to avoid the lure of the craps tables and hotel pools (made easier by the coolish, mid-50s weather) and act as your eyes and ears on the ground. Look for our newsletter hitting your inboxes every evening (Eastern time) from now through Friday. If haven’t you subscribed yet, you can sign up here. You can also dip into CES firsthand via the conference’s live video feed. Send Nancy and Cristiano your tips, questions and restaurant recommendations they probably won’t get to use at nscola@politico.com and clima@politico.com or on Twitter @nancyscola and @viaCristiano.
Also a hearty welcome to our colleagues David Pierce and Janko Roettgers from Protocol, the new media company from the publisher of POLITICO, who will be contributing throughout the week. (More below.)
CES is absolutely sprawling, and festivities are already underway with a series of news conferences and media events before the summit kicks off in earnest Tuesday. But we’re headed into the week with our eyes on a number of key themes. Here’s a sneak peak:
Nancy’s take: I’m going to be looking at how much the national political debate, from the 2020 presidential contest to trade wars to geopolitical conflicts, is truly on the minds of the tech leaders assembled here.
— One indicator: What kind of reception does the CES crowd gives first daughter Ivanka Trump, who’s taking part in a somewhat controversial keynote interview Tuesday on STEM and more? Moreover, is the tech world feeling glum, or is it, to steal the title of an upcoming talk by UC Berkeley futurist Ken Goldberg, still embracing a „radically hopeful vision of the future„? Plus, I’m on the lookout for what’s next in food tech, including the “plant meat” megatrend powered in part by Silicon Valley.
Cristiano’s take: CES arrives as companies across the digital space adjust to the dawn of a new era for online privacy in the U.S., with California’s landmark consumer protection law in effect as of Jan. 1. Huge tech players from Microsoft to Facebook to Google have made news in recent weeks by spelling out plans to comply with the statute, which many expect to set a de facto national standard in the absence of a federal law. I’ll be monitoring to see how the milestone reverberates across a range of industries.
— And how much does the Bay fear the Beltway? Pummeling Silicon Valley has become a frequent theme in Washington, with lawmakers threatening crackdowns on issues like online privacy, bias, anticompetitive behavior and harmful content. But the industry has yet to face serious consequences from a divided Congress, and it’s unclear how much will come of all the antitrust inquiries.
CES TAKES ON BIAS IN AI — One early trend at the conference: While the topic of artificial intelligence is huge, from its use in managing workforces to facial recognition, the tech world still hasn’t worked out exactly how to talk about worries of baked-in discrimination. That became clear during an afternoon session on AI and bias (which by coincidence happened steps away from a spot from where event organizer CTA was “trialing” an opt-in face screening for badge pickup).
—Former FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn pointed to a lack of diversity in tech, including, she said, “When it comes to the showroom floor, let’s be honest.” Clyburn, who’s African American, also cited an incident where one major communications company’s face reader “did not see my face at all.” She asked the panelists: Does that sort of thing suggest a need for new government rules?
—The answers were mixed. “I actually think we’re way behind on regulation,” said Elizabeth Gore, the president of the AI-for-entrepreneurs platform Alice. Gore called for digital rules analogous to the ones on bad behavior that, she said, will get you tossed from a bar in her native Texas. But Bernard Coleman, the global head of diversity and inclusion at Uber, said the onus should be on the tech firms to get things right. “That’s what customers want and that’s what shareholders want,” said Coleman, who once served as the chief diversity officer on the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign.
ISSA TALKS AI, SECTION 230 AND HIS LEADERSHIP ASPIRATIONS — Darrell Issa, the former California lawmaker who’s speaking at a CES panel on artificial intelligence Wednesday, told Cristiano that he thinks the global sprint to AI dominance is „greater than the original Space Race“ of the 1950s and 1960s. „We’re in a race for the technological lead that AI will give to nations that are best at it and we’re in a race for the fact that wars of the future and the present depend on AI,“ he said in an interview.
In other highlights from our Q&A, Issa said:
— Yes to extending liability protections in trade deals: Issa weighed in on whether language shielding the tech industry from liability, echoing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, should be extended in U.S. trade pacts — a recent cause for controversy regarding deals with Mexico, Canada and Japan. “Yes, if we have the model we need to have in place,“ said Issa, who had been nominated by President Donald Trump to head the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. He added, „Some of the principles of 230 are pretty well settled, so the answer to those of course is yes.”
— Not so fast on blocking federal use of facial recognition: Asked whether he agrees with top House Oversight Republican Jim Jordan that Congress should put a moratorium on any new federal funding for facial recognition use, he jokingly quipped, “Your connection is going to get bad any moment now.“ But Issa, who once chaired the committee, said he „absolutely“ supports Oversight holding hearings and possibly crafting legislation on the issue.
— He hopes to reclaim a gavel: “Based on my seniority, I’m at the top of the dais in three committees, almost the top on two others,” Issa said, naming the Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, Oversight, Intelligence, and Energy and Commerce committees as panels he would hope to lead — if he wins reelection and the GOP retakes the House. “I’m returning with the anticipation that I would serve at the leadership of a committee or a subcommittee.”
Here’s what is catching the eyes of our friends David and Janko from Protocol, who are also on the ground in Las Vegas:
SCREEN SIZE ISN’T EVERYTHING THIS YEAR — Instead, TV makers are doubling down on privacy. “Our screens must evolve,” said Jong-Hee Han, president of Samsung’s TV division.
AI IS AT THE CENTER OF EVERYONE’S TV PLANS — Most new TVs are integrating with Alexa and Google Assistant, and some manufacturers are building their own AI assistants. „Discovery is going to voice in the content world,“ said PBS exec Ira Rubenstein, „and it’s a freaking nightmare.“ He mostly meant because many platforms make search difficult, but it’s also a privacy conundrum: People want easier ways to find stuff to watch, but will they want always-on microphones and cameras in their TV?
— LG says no: Most of its new mass-market TVs won’t come with built-in microphones — only the remote provides access to voice-search features, a choice that makes a big nod toward privacy. Samsung, meanwhile, announced a dedicated privacy settings app for its new TVs. “We want to help consumers who are trying to balance between privacy and personalization across the different TV services,” Samsung EVP Joe Stinziano said.
— TV makers aren’t scaling back their ambitions, though. There’s plenty of bigger, brighter and bolder — 8K! Quantum Dots! NanoCell! — in Vegas this year. Manufacturers also see the TV as the centerpiece of the smart home. But behind that glitz, the battle between features and privacy is very much on. And it’s raging on the largest screen in the house.
ON DECK FOR TUESDAY: CES will kick into action with a series of big-name appearances. Those include a fireside chat featuring Simons and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, a separate session with a slew of other FTC and FCC commissioners, a discussion with Ivanka Trump, a keynote address from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and a roundtable with the chief privacy officers for some of the tech industry’s biggest companies. We’ll be tracking.
Source: politico.com
See more here: news365.stream
