Tech Prom Tech Talk - Episode 1
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Transcript
Welcome to a special edition of CDT's Tech Talks. I'm Jamal Magdi, and it's time to talk tech.
Welcome to Tech Talk. Bye.
CT. Tea. In this very special episode, we're taking you inside one of the most anticipated nights in tech policy, Tech Prom. Each year, Tech Prom brings together leaders from government, civil society, industry, and academia to celebrate progress, exchange ideas, and chart the future of technology in service of democracy and human rights. In this episode, you'll hear short interviews from the event floor, conversations with some of the most brilliant minds currently shaping the technology and policy landscape. We ask them about their work, what opportunities and challenges they see on the horizon, and what gives them hope for the future of tech. So grab your headphones and join us as we step into the energy, insights, and optimism of Tech Prom twenty twenty five.
Welcome to CDT's Tech Talks. I'm here with Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. I was, confirmed as an FTC commissioner in 2018, and then I was renominated by president Biden and reconfirmed in 2024. And currently, I'm in litigation about the status of that job. Don Graves. State representative Monique Priestley. Anna Gomez, commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission. Tell us a little bit about how you got connected with CDT and involved in our work. Well, before I became an FTC commissioner, I handled tech policy for senator Schumer first on the judiciary committee. And then, obviously, in my time at the FTC, we do a ton of work on tech related issues and tech policy. And so I have always worked with CDT, known CDT's work in thinking through some of the complicated issues involving
democracy and technology. Well, I am the former deputy secretary, US Department of Commerce and, got connected to the CDT because anytime you do anything related to technology, you should best know CBT. The work that you all do is just absolutely cutting edge and critically important for anyone who is reasonable, rational, and thinking forward.
It's it's important to be with you guys. CBT has been an invaluable resource just being able to connect to, resources in kind of the industry space, civil society space, and and really, being able to make sure that I'm hearing from different voices when I'm trying to work on legislation. So I've been following CDT for a long time because of all the important work that you do,
for our freedoms. But I particularly started working with CDT when I launched my First Amendment tour this year to bring to light the abuses of this administration of the First Amendment. And my first event on my First Amendment tour was at CDT.
What are some of the biggest opportunities you're seeing in the tech policy space right now? Well, I think the reason tech has always been an exciting area for people is because of the potential it has presented to connect people, to distribute power and voice to people who have not had it, to connect ideas and information so that we don't have to rely on centralized sources of information. That's always been an opportunity. I think that opportunity remains really important and also somewhat imperiled. I think it creates the chance for people to align with each other against centralized sources of power, whether those powers are authoritarian governments or large incumbents in markets. But I think we continue to live in a world where tech can solve big problems and bring people together if we can really realize those opportunities.
There are huge opportunities for democratization of a whole range of technologies in ways that we hadn't thought about before. So I know that there's huge discussion of AI, and I actually think that if we do this the right way, we can actually create mechanisms for a a AI to be utilized by the average person more effectively while also protecting their privacy, their security, their own personal data. It's a needle that that we have to thread, but I think we can do it. I mean, really just to, like, a lot of my focus is on, data privacy, data protections,
whether that's consumer level or the whether that's government at this point, given everything that's going on. And then also just artificial intelligence, online use safety,
just, yeah, so much. What I would like to be working on really is benefiting consumers through what the FCC does. Unfortunately, it's not what I'm working on because what I'm seeing out of this administration besides the abuses of the first amendment is also just taking such anti consumer actions. So right now, we have an open meeting, which is our public meeting. We call it an open meeting on Tuesday. There are nine proceedings on that meeting on Tuesday of which we are proposing, we being the FCC is proposing to take such anti consumer actions like, raising the rates that incarcerated persons, families pay to be able to call for video chat with incarcerated persons, to remove protections from robocalls, to remove information that consumers get when they try to, comparison shop their services. So I would really, really love to refocus on our traditional, actions to protect consumers rather than continue to take actions just to deregulate,
in order to benefit the companies. Looking ahead, what makes you most optimistic about the future of technology and its role in supporting democracy and human rights. Things that make me optimistic
about technology is the ability of technology to connect people, often without intermediaries and to allow individuals to feel empowered in markets against governments and having free voices. That's the other side of the coin is exactly where there's peril too. Right? So when we don't have that kind of distributed power, we can run into real dangers of abuse of people by concentrated sources of power, whether they're authoritarian governments or large incumbents.
The more that we can get good folks like Doreen, Bogdan Martin at the ITU and other major institutions to think about the issue of democracy and democratization. You know, she's been a champion of this. I think that it's changing the way that we look at technology, and it's allowing young people across the globe to innovate for their own personal challenges there, the challenges that they're facing in their own countries. So it's not just about The United States or the West. It's, it's how can these new technologies be used in ways
that none of us are thinking about right now? It's a little dark, but I feel like, I think in this moment, people have never been more aware of the role that technology plays, when it comes to power, democracy, and just our our way of life. And so I think there's a lot of opportunity and, you know, people are frustrated, I think, in this moment. They're scared. They're angry. But I also think that with that, there's a great opportunity to turn that into action and turn that into hope and for people to realize the part that they play in protecting our democracy and and basically, like, our humanity.
Thank you for listening to Tech Talks presented by the Center for Democracy and Technology. I've been your host, Jamal Magdi. Tech Talks is edited by Jacob Kaufman and produced by Drew Courtney. Check out more of CDT's work by visiting us online at cdt.org and on various social media at sendem tech. That's c e n d e m tech. Thanks for talking tech.
