Key Speakers from Tech Prom 2018 – Talking Tech w/ Perry Chen & Michael Kratsios
Motivated by a desire to help fellow artists and creators bring their work to life, Perry Chen founded Kickstarter — the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. CDT honored Chen with its Digital Visionary Award at its 2018 Annual Dinner, Tech Prom, on March 29, recognizing his work as an artist, innovator, and leader in leveraging tech for good.<br><br>CDT's President & CEO Nuala O'Connor discussed being "Online for Good", highlighting the important issues facing the internet today, and CDT's advocacy efforts to push us forward – including election cybersecurity, algorithmic transparency and accountability, and privacy, in addition to countless other projects.<br><br>Why we chose Perry & Kickstarter: http://bit.ly/2vx9Y4P<br><br>More on Nuala: https://twitter.com/privacymama<br>More on Perry: https://twitter.com/perrychen<br>More on Michael: http://michaelkratsios.com/<br><br>More info on Tech Prom: https://cdt.org/annual-dinner/<br>More info on our host, Brian: bit.ly/cdtbrian<br><br>Attribution: sounds used from Psykophobia, Taira Komori, BenKoning, Zabuhailo, bloomypetal, guitarguy1985, bmusic92, and offthesky of freesound.org.
Top Keywords
- tonight 0.009
- good 0.009
- kickstarter 0.008
- technology 0.007
- tech 0.007
- public benefit 0.007
- benefit corporation 0.006
- online 0.006
- online good 0.006
- corporation 0.005
- public 0.005
- perry 0.005
Transcript
Welcome to Tech Talk. Bye.
CT. T.
Did you make it to Tech Prom this year? It's, of course, the tech and Internet policy event of the year. But if you missed out, first, shame, shame, but you're in luck. This episode features the speakers of Tech Prom. First, you'll hear from our president and CEO, Nuala O'Connor, about being online for good. Then you'll get to hear yours truly, chatting with CDT's twenty eighteen digital visionary, Perry Chen, who's the founder and chairman of Kickstarter and also led their transformation into being a public benefit corporation. And then finally, you get to hear from Michael Kratios, the deputy US chief technology officer, which still somehow makes him the highest ranking official in the administration on tech and science. It was truly an awesome night. Thank you to all who attended and supported CDT. And if you weren't there, we hope to see you at Tech Prom in 2019.
Please welcome to the stage, CDT president and CEO, Nuala O'Connor.
Good evening. I promise I'm almost the last thing standing between you and dessert or drinks. Next year, the Center for Democracy and Technology turns 25 years old. Yet. And this summer, I turn 50. Yeah. Whoo. Which makes me officially old enough to be CDT's mother, apparently. But I am not your mother, as I keep telling the staff. CDT already has several mothers, or more precisely, founders who were women. Jan Lori Goldman. Jan Lori Goldman is one of of our founders. She is not here with us tonight, but we look forward to celebrating her and celebrating with her at the twenty fifth anniversary and in the years ahead. Along with Jan Lori were Jerry Berman and Danny Weitzner. And Jonah Seiger and Deirdre Mulligan, both of whom are with us tonight. We are grateful to all of them for their vision for this wonderful organization. And tonight, we want to especially honor Deirdre. Deirdre has served this organization as a leader, as a staff member, as board chair for almost all of the 24 of its existence. This is her last tech prom as a board member, and we thank her. Now, it's a funny story how Deirdre and I met, although we went to law school together. We first met on the opposite sides of the CDT conference room table. I won't tell you what you said to me back then in the nineteen nineties. It wasn't very nice. We were representing different constituencies and different organizations, but we were united then, as we are now by a love of technology and a genuine belief in the power of the Internet to make people's lives better. And yet, here we are today. The conversation around technology in this country at least and in many parts of the world is not so good. Techlash, some are calling it, just the unruly teenage years of a new industry, or the normal maturity model. But tonight, mindful of how much hard work there is ahead of all of us in this room, on free speech, on cybersecurity, and responsible data practices by institutions of all kinds, I'm going to talk about what's still good on the Internet. And there is so much, and it starts with each of you. We are all online for good. I mean that in at least two ways. First of all, I do believe most of you are online with good intent, maybe not all of us, but most of you, and the technology is improving our lives each and every day. And second of all, barring some catastrophic event, we are online for good as in forever, we are not putting this genie back in the box, in the bottle, and we have no reason to want to. We are online to connect, we are online to innovate, we are online to participate, we are online to be heard. There are examples everywhere of this. First, of course, the example of our honoree tonight, Perry Chen, and the wonderful work he has done personally in founding Kickstarter and creating it as a public benefit corporation. By helping artists, designers, entrepreneurs bring their creative projects to life, Kickstarter is showing that innovation can be democratized globally. And in our work examining Internet's impact on speech and information, we see powerful examples of how technology can be used to further our understanding. I look no further than my good friend Rainey Aronson at Frontline, who has built a digital library of online source documents so viewers and readers can probe and understand and even question the journalistic process. And of course, it's essential to remember the power of the Internet to make a single voice heard and to create a movement, like Me too or Black Lives Matter or Never Again. These are just a few of the examples of how the Internet, alongside good old fashioned advocacy and protest and organising, is driving new dialogue and certainly changing a few minds. And while for some of us these changes seem to have come very slowly, for others they seem to happen in an instant. And that's how change sometimes happen. It seems like nothing and nothing and nothing and then everything all at once. And when that all at once moment happens, CDT is ready with our working groups and our white papers and our statements of principle and position and, yes, our ability and our willingness to compromise, that dirty word that democracy was founded on. And this year, we are certainly focusing on the democracy part of our name, doubling down on the democracy, as I like to say, and the values we hold so dear. Here are just a few of the things we're working on at the intersection of democracy and technology. Election cybersecurity. Fair elections are essential to our democracy, and voting systems must be accurate, secure, and trusted. That's why CDT is helping election officials around the world address critical cybersecurity issues facing their countries. We are working with officials at all levels, at federal, state, and local levels, to ensure that citizens have confidence in the integrity of their vote. AI. Another CDT focus is the algorithms that run our digital world, from news and information to advertising and content management, to make them more both ethical and accountable. We are exploring the ways that existing power structures and bias can unintentionally be baked into AI, and through our digital decisions project, we have created online tools so that the developers can serve as the first line against unintended bias. We are working with government agencies to ensure that the rights of the citizen are at the forefront of any AI system when it is used for critical public initiatives. And the hearty perennial privacy. CDT has long been at the forefront of the debate on the responsible use of personal information and data across all sectors: government, private sector, health, education, finance, children. We continue to do the hard work, bringing diverse viewpoints together, getting people proximate to one another, but it's time to move beyond the headlines and do the hard work of creating an enduring practical framework that protects the digital self in the Internet age, one that neither unduly burdens individuals nor stymies innovation, but that promotes the best of human agency and human dignity. It's time for a comprehensive federal data protection framework. I'm still betting on an omnibus federal privacy law in my lifetime. You now know how old I am, so we've got some time. But let's make this happen. I understand this means a lot of hard work for all of us in the room, whether we work in advocacy, or in the private sector, or in the government, and all of us need to do some fresh thinking in this area. It's not enough for the same old jargon, the same old framework, the same old terms, even notice and choice. We need new thinking and new constructs, and even more, we need new and diverse voices at the table. We must be truly intersectional. Otherwise, the solutions we create will be inadequate for the country and the world in the years ahead. I recently met a very young woman, a recent college graduate, who had a fluency with data protection that I found remarkable, and it reminded me of all of us working in the 1990s in this area because she knew instinctively what her rights were and how they might be violated, and she used words like agency, the ability to speak and move and associate in the internet space without undue interference. Control, control over one's own data and self representation online, and transparency, a basic working knowledge about what data is collected, and even more important, how it was going to be used to make decisions about the information that we see. She recognized a necessity to being online, but said that the outcomes, whether good or bad, were not inevitable, and she recognized that we should have some choice in how our data are collected and used. But she didn't really use the word privacy at all. In fact, one of my CDT colleagues said just the other day, I wonder if privacy might simply be too small a construct. This is dignity, this is values, and it is respect for the individual, a recognition of the practical realities of life in the digital world. That is the space where CDT lives in the real world with real and hard problems, working on practical policy that affects and enables the technology in our daily lives. Achieving this takes honest and hard conversation about the positives and the negatives of technology, and it's easy right now to focus on the negative, but when others zig, CDT zags. We are not buying the conventional wisdom that technology today is all bad any more than we bought the conventional wisdom twenty five years ago that it was all good. It is just as good as we make it, all of us, the creators, the makers, the engineers, the policy wonks, the lawyers, the innovators, and the founders, each of us who is present every day online. You get to decide each day in ways large and small. Are you online for good? Thank you.
There we go. Let me adjust that. Thank you, Bill. Congratulations
again, Perry. Thank you very much, Brian. I mean Everybody can everybody hear me in the back?
Yeah? No? Alright. We'll just move our little mics up a little bit more. We've got this. Don't worry. So you wear a lot of hats, Perry. You're an artist. You're an entrepreneur. And now, of course, CDT's digital visionary. That's pretty badass. I shouldn't say that on stage. Cut that from the script. So we talked a bit about Bill's intro about Kickstarter and reincorporating it as a public benefit corporation. What exactly does that mean and why did you do that?
Sure. About three years ago we reincorporated from a typical c corporation to a public benefit corporation, which is a for profit form that is also committed to public benefits and greater stakeholders, and critically is, allows us to do that
outside of the profit maximization mandate. Okay. Very cool. So, I have a couple things I need to read about what that means, and this is helpful, but I do have to read this. So, by being a public benefit corporation, you agree Kickstarter will never sell user data. It won't use loopholes to reduce its tax burdens. Its terms of use won't claim rights or powers just because it can. And, it won't lobby for public policies unless they align with its mission values regardless of possible economic benefits. I mean, that's pretty awesome. Wow. So talk deserves it. So talk a bit more about the process of becoming that and do you think that could work for other tech and internet companies?
Yeah. So, the That's actually amendments we made to our charter in addition to being a public benefit corporation. Oh, so this is above and beyond? Well, when when we were reincorporating, it was a it was a moment where we could go in, and author some specific commitments in the charter. And so, we chose those three and a half years ago, and I think, an important week maybe to talk about that stuff. You know, this is our attempt. The public benefit corporation forum is right now at the best, forum I think currently available to get out of the profit maximization mandate and to really be able to, try to be be able to have impact as part of your mission fully. And so we wanted to add those things as well because we wanted to ensure that we don't wanna go public. We don't wanna sell. So how do you do something over time where you can keep the value? So we encoded it in the charter. They're legally binding. Shareholders can sue. Gerald with 2% of work can sue the companies to hold us to those. Oh, wow. So why these specific ones?
Do you wanna look at them again to see what they are exactly? Okay.
Kickstarter will never sell user data. I think somewhat obvious today. We won't use loopholes to reduce our tax burden. Again, I mean, I don't have to tell people in this room, where where these come from. I think that we see that this is, trying to push back against a culture of industry standard. I think where a lot of good people end up in entities where, they are compelled because the vehicles, the entities themselves under the profit maximization mandate, often force good and ethical people into, you know, making decisions or somebody else will come and do that job. So, you know, again, we had the opportunity to rewrite our charter. I I know not every company has that opportunity. Public benefit corporations are more for, you know, I think founders that still have enough control to shift into that or new companies starting in a vehicle.
Probably less likely for a large existing public companies. Cool. Thank you. Hey, folks in the back. We're having a little sound issue. So if you could quiet down, I'd be super appreciative. Thank you. Oh, there we go. See, I knew I had an applause line in there. So let's look at the Internet as a whole a bit. You know, do you think it's living up to its potential? And do you think tech tech companies in general should be doing more to, let's just say, benefit the general social good or social well-being?
You know, I I don't think tech industry matters. I think technology, you know, the book was technology. You know, technology through time, everything has been technology and then it isn't. I think it's really up to the people. A lot of the people in the room. Like, how do we want these things to be vehicles for our values? I think right now we're trapped inside of, you know, mandates and theology that force force the hand. And so I think we see what things like, are we talking about this week happen. Yeah. And if we wanna step outside of that, I think we're gonna have to develop new systems, new forms of corporate governance, and, you know, move on to a new religion in this country from celebrity and
profit. Are you optimistic about that? Do you think we can get there?
Yeah. I I do. I mean, I I think definitely. I mean, I think thing these things go in cycles. I think it's important just not to be nihilistic, like not to think this is how it is and whatever. You know, you gotta push back a little bit. When you look around kind of the tech industry besides Kickstarter, are there any any, like, businesses, companies, individuals doing really great things besides Kickstarter, of course, that inspire you? I mean, you know, I I think what really matters is I I think these these companies are just narratives. Companies don't exist. It's about the people. It's like the people in this room, I hope. But we all organize ourselves in this way. It could be tribes. It could be sports teams, it could be an academic institution. We're organizing ourselves around these companies.
What matters is what we want to do, and then we push them to do that. And it'll be with whatever is technology at that time. Okay. So I'm gonna push you one more since you are a digital visionary to look towards the future. The next big challenges that tech needs to deal with to get it right, what are they? What are the things that should be on our radar right now? The next big challenge for tech?
Is the deal right now? Or are we don't we're not good right now? I mean, listen. We're gonna have to deal with the issue at hand. We're gonna have to deal with the issue that we're all talking about right now. I know there's people from people from those organizations here tonight, and I wanna assume that you guys are very smart and and ethical people, and, you know, you're working from the inside to try to move us into a place we wanna be. I think we're all a little bit nervous about where we are right now. But we can't be afraid of this. Because, honestly, we have a window right now before the AI comes in and merges with the data. So, let's not pretend this is not a window and let's make a change. Let's try to push back and we can do that. But, we just sit back, it won't happen. But I'm optimistic. I wanna be optimistic.
We've got a good crowd here and I know they are good good all good people here. Perry, thank you so much for the work you do. Congratulations on being our our digital
visionary. Please join me in welcoming Michael Kratios.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you. Thank you for the kind introduction, and, and thank you, to CDT for the opportunity to to be with you tonight. This evening, I want to take a little bit of time to to address what the White House is doing to advance American technology leadership. We see it in primarily three pillars. The first is defending American technologies abroad. The second is promoting emerging technologies. And the third third is empowering Americans to innovate. As you no doubt know, the Trump administration has been working hard to secure free, fair, and reciprocal trade on the global scene. But beyond the recent news on steel and aluminum, we have also been working diligently to address the technology and digital economy priorities for you in this room and for the American public at large. This administration is standing strong, determined to ensure America's future economic leadership and security by advancing emerging technologies and stopping unfair trade practices. As you can see, this is in our recent actions at the WTO to address China's discriminatory licensing restrictions against US technologies and our actions directing the Treasury Department to address harm to The US resulting from Chinese investment practices directed towards acquiring sensitive technologies. I'd like to quote from our national security strategy which came out in December, which is one of our most seminal documents. The Internet is an American invention, and it should reflect our values as it continues to transform the future for all nations and all generations. The United States will continue to advocate for open interoperable communications with minimal barriers to the global exchange of information and services. Our national security and future economic growth depend on this. So at this point in history, we must work with our allies to advance emerging technologies and not slow their development. As you all know, the theme for tonight's gala is online for good. In keeping with that theme, I have a lot of good news to share with you tonight after returning from Montreal, where my team spent the last two days representing The US at the g seven Ministerial for Employment and Innovation. At this meeting, I had the opportunity to interact with representatives for many of America's closest economic and political allies. The theme of me of the meeting was preparing for the jobs of the future, and we've covered a lot of territory important to many of you here tonight. During the meeting, ministers discussed how each of our nations is dealing with the issues we have in common. How do we increase the rate of technological innovation in the Western world? How do we encourage more participation in STEM related fields from people of diverse backgrounds in all walks of life? And how can we help our workforce prepare for the future when the rate of technological advancement continues to accelerate, creating dramatic shifts in the employment landscape? Ministers also addressed the productivity declines that developed nations, including those in the g seven, have been experiencing for years. Our best hope at fighting back against this trend is technology, unrestrained by overburdensome and unnecessary government regulation. In Montreal, g seven leaders agreed to recognize that market led AI innovations will positively impact key industries, including health care, transportation, manufacturing, and agriculture. And together, we stood resolute in our opposition to forced transfer of source code and mass market software as terms to market access. The g seven is just one example of work my team has been doing to advance American innovation. We're working to promote emerging technologies like unmanned aircraft systems that are enabling Americans to be more efficient and do their jobs more safely and more effectively. Incredible jobs like infrastructure inspection can be now be done exponentially faster without risking the human life. And we can give inspectors tools like drones instead of repelling equipment. And artificial intelligence is helping the American worker do their jobs better, whether it's spotting financial fraud or diagnosing cancer. These technologies are making life better for real Americans every day. In order to fully benefit from these technologies advances, we need a regulatory environment that encourages innovation and empowers our greatest technologists and scientists to develop their technologies here in The US. And the next generation of our greatest technologists and scientists will be a product of the actions today to increase access to STEM education for all segments of society. This is a cornerstone of our tech agenda, and President Trump has taken executive action to increase STEM funding and to expand apprenticeship programs to ready to tase youth for the workforce of tomorrow. It's important for us, government, academia, and industry, to forge creative pathways of opportunity for people to gain the skills that tech firms need today and for far into the future. This ensures Americans of all stripes will continue to incubate great ideas for years to come. As we celebrate tonight, the good that technology does for society, I invite you to reach out to us within the administration. We want to be a partner in advancing technological innovation in this great country. We want to hear about your pain points and the challenges you face, and more importantly, how we can help. Together, we can make the future a reality today. Many thank you.
That's it for this episode of Tech Talk. All of these great remarks are also available on CDT's YouTube channel. Check them out, and you'll get to see just how snazzy I looked at tech prom. I'm Brian Wasilowski. Thanks so much for listening.
