What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been! This year’s AppCon, the App Economy Conference just wrapped up. While past AppCon events took place in Washington, D.C., 2020’s conference went completely digital. Fortunately, this change in the medium didn’t stop attending mobile app developers and tech innovators from opening a meaningful dialogue with political leaders about the impact of emerging technologies on society.

From broadband and 5G to telehealth and data privacy, here are the favorite AppCon 2020 highlights of Marc Fischer, our CEO and Co-Founder.

Better Internet Access Is Essential for Every Aspect of Society

The growth of the $1.7 trillion app economy and numerous other sectors depends on widespread internet access. Whether it’s educational opportunities, work, or healthcare, hundreds of millions of Americans turn to the internet every single day to get things done. With that said, do you know how many U.S. citizens currently lack access to adequate broadband connection? 20 million! Unsurprisingly, this transforms the digital divide into an enormous chasm.

During AppCon 2020, attendees got to meet with several members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to discuss the benefits that television white spaces, (TVWS), better broadband connectivity, and 5G infrastructure can bring to America. FCC Commissioners Michael O’Rielly and Brendan Carr joined in on the conversation and respectively honed in on ensuring broadband exists everywhere in the U.S. and making more spectrum available.

COVID-19 has made it readily apparent that internet access and connected devices are integral to carry out remote learning successfully. That’s why FCC Legal Advisor Umair Javed and Travis Litman, Chief of Staff and Senior Legal Advisor for the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, dedicated their time at AppCon 2020 towards discussing the digital divide’s effect on education and how it can be mitigated. AppCon attendees also got to talk with Evan Swarztrauber, a Policy Advisor of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, about increasing rural healthcare budgets and improving broadband access in these regions.

Whether it’s 5G, broadband, or TVWS, we strongly believe that everyone deserves strong internet access; it’s a necessity for practically every aspect of our modern lives. But this can only occur through more investment on a federal and private level.

Connected Health Tech Will Be a Cornerstone of Medicine, Even After COVID-19

Besides pulling back the curtain on how integral internet access is to remote education, COVID-19 has also unveiled the necessity of telehealth. Connected digital tools have been invaluable in the U.S. healthcare system’s battle with the pandemic. Doctors and patients have benefited immensely from the temporary restriction lifting on telehealth and medical app usage. That’s why a big part of AppCon 2020 focused on meeting with congressional leaders to ensure that digital health remains a cornerstone of our health system.

The U.S. currently spends $3 trillion on healthcare annually. $1 trillion of this goes through Medicare and Medicaid. Unfortunately, the country is still short by roughly 30,000 physicians, and this deficit will leap to 90,000 in approximately ten years. Around this exact same time, 70 million Americans will be 65 or older, and 80% of them will have at least one chronic condition. To make matters worse, 40% of Medicare patients have inadequate broadband access right now.

During their discussion with AppCon attendees, members of the U.S. Commerce Department acknowledged that telehealth has been extremely beneficial to Medicare. But for this technological paradigm to grow in the right direction, innovators and legislators must embrace what works and discard anything inefficient. We should take a lean approach to data management and prioritize the information that makes the most positive impact for the fewest dollars.

Dr. Donald Rucker, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), also spoke with attendees about the need to examine data gathering and usage so that patients can have agency over their healthcare. Rucker also discussed the difficulties of EMR integration, HIPAA compliance, and the often incomplete pictures of patient data that doctors around the country deal with.

COVID-19 has spurred a new age of digital innovation in the healthcare domain. We strongly believe that establishing telehealth, remote patient monitoring, and other digital advances as permanent fixtures is the right way to go. These technological capabilities allow patients to get treatment from the comfort of their own homes while drastically cutting costs. We hope that more political leaders start to see these clear-cut advantages for what they really are — a path towards a healthier future for all U.S. citizens

Data Privacy and Encryption Must Be Prioritized

There’s no doubt that we live in the information era. ACT’s member companies alone handle millions of terabytes of data every single day. We know that proper data security is imperative to protecting sensitive information and ensuring it’s being used appropriately. That’s why an entire week of AppCon 2020 was dedicated to this topic!

AppCon attendees and congressional leaders delved into the critical issues surrounding privacy legislation as well as the need for ubiquitous end-to-end encryption. They also made room to discuss the timely topic of facial recognition.

While the development of artificial intelligence has brought humanity several unprecedented capabilities, some of them demand more careful consideration regarding their usage. Facial recognition is one such matter. Attendees and political leaders talked about the implications that facial recognition and its accompanying legislation could have for both the near and far future.

See You At AppCon 2021!

As always, AppCon was an amazingly insightful event! The candid discussions that Marc gets to have at these conferences are something he looks forward to every year. They’re the reasons why Marc always makes the trek out to D.C. from Los Angeles!

As much fun as AppCon 2020 was, we hope that the world beats COVID-19 by next year’s event so that things return to normal and we can hold AppCon 2021 in-person. Until then, stay safe, and stay informed!

AppCon 2020 has been underway for the past few weeks. While this year’s conference is completely digital, that hasn’t stopped the many mobile app developers and tech innovators in attendance from opening up meaningful dialogues with political leaders about the impact of emerging technologies on the future of the United States.

So much has happened in such a short amount of time that we thought a blog post covering some of the best highlights of this year’s event so far was warranted. With that said, let’s dive right in!

Week 1: The Future of the U.S. Depends on Internet Access

Besides being an essential utility that sustains the growth of the $1.7 trillion app economy as well as several small businesses in a variety of sectors, widespread internet access also supports hundreds of millions of Americans. With it, they’re able to access healthcare services, educational opportunities, and much more.

Unfortunately, more than 20 million U.S. citizens still lack access to an adequate broadband connection. And unless this is addressed soon, this digital divide will only grow larger with the introduction of new technologies. AppCon ’20 attendees got to speak with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Michael O’Rielly about this very topic.

Commissioner O’Rielly expressed intent in ensuring that broadband exists everywhere in the U.S. and placed special emphasis on getting underserved Americans connected. He stressed the importance of high bandwidth and low latency, and he also noted that how we achieve broadband access for all is less important than actually accomplishing it.

AppCon attendees also spoke with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who was focused on making more spectrum available for use. Whether it’s not having a device to connect with healthcare professionals, being unable to rely on high-speed internet, or not having access to a private space for care, Carr was well-aware of the pain points of Americans across the country. He reassured AppCon attendees that more funding was coming for connected care.

FCC Legal Advisor Umair Javed and Travis Litman, Chief of Staff and Senior Legal Advisor for the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, focused their meetings with AppCon attendees on the digital divide’s effect on education. COVID-19 has pulled back the curtain on just how necessary internet access and devices such as smartphones and laptops are for remote learning. During the meeting, Javed indicated that low power applications carried some potential for closing this gap.

Last but not least, AppCon attendees also got to meet with Evan Swarztrauber, a Policy Advisor of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Swarztrauber noted that an increase in rural healthcare budget was sorely needed, and so was an improvement in broadband access for these regions. With COVID-19 forcing aspects of society such as education and healthcare to go remote, folks out in the country will fall behind unless they have fast internet.

Week 2: Telehealth Must Remain Accessible, Even After COVID-19

Telehealth and connected tools have proven invaluable in the U.S. healthcare system’s response to COVID-19. It’s obvious that these technological paradigms are a necessity for all Americans, but unfortunately, some politicians don’t see it that way. Much of AppCon ’20’s Week 2 revolved around attendees meeting with congressional leaders to ensure that digital health remains a cornerstone in our country’s medical system.

Currently, the U.S. has an annual healthcare spend of $3 trillion, with $1 trillion going through Medicare and Medicaid. The country is short by about 30,000 physicians, and this shortage is estimated to grow to 90,000 by 2030. By that same year, 70 million Americans will be over 65, and 80% of them will be dealing with at least one chronic condition.

These statistics make it painfully obvious that telehealth capabilities should become a permanent fixture in the U.S. medical system. But before COVID-19, this technology was wrestling with rules written in the 1990s. Clearly, things have come a long way since then. Unfortunately, the temporary waiver that allows Medicare to cover telehealth is slated to end by November unless fast, meaningful action is taken.

AppCon attendees had the chance to speak with staff from the U.S. Commerce Department. Though 40% of Medicare patients don’t have adequate broadband access at home right now, the department members emphasized that telehealth transformation is definitely beneficial to Medicare. But we must keep the growth and convenience of this technology going without exacerbating health inequities. They also discussed that innovators and legislators must keep what works and let go of anything fraud-laden or inefficient.

To achieve this, the U.S. Commerce Department staff stressed that we need an honest, balanced approach to data management. We should prioritize the most useful data that provides the most positive impact for the fewest taxpayer dollars. We should also focus on delivering services and outcomes, not billing for simply noticing a malady and not treating it.

AppCon attendees also got to speak with Dr. Donald Rucker, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). Rucker wants one of the main goals for Congress to be freeing up patients to have agency over their healthcare. And to do this, we must examine the mechanism behind data gathering and usage.

Digital health tools and wearables such as the Apple Watch should strive to put patients back in charge of their information. Rucker believes that patients and the American public have already paid for this data, so they should be in charge of it, not third parties.

Rucker went on to discuss a variety of topics with AppCon attendees, including interoperability, how difficult EMR integration is, HIPAA compliance, and the need to address the incomplete pictures of patient data that physicians have to deal with. He even mentioned that healthcare providers sometimes struggle to access their own data.

Stay Tuned for Our Coverage of Weeks 3 & 4!

While digital this year, AppCon 2020 has done an amazing job of bringing together mobile innovators from Los Angeles, New York City, and everywhere in between! But the party’s not over yet. Stay tuned for our coverage of weeks 3 and 4, where AppCon attendees will get the chance to discuss privacy, encryption, antitrust, and standard-essential patents (SEPs).

For the past few years, AppCon, the App Economy Conference, has taken over Washington, D.C. in late April. The annual event serves as an unparalleled opportunity for mobile app developers and other tech innovators to open a meaningful dialogue with political leaders about the future of emerging technologies and their impact on society.

This candid discussion is something that Marc Fischer, our CEO and Co-Founder, looks forward to every year. He usually makes the trek out to D.C. from Los Angeles just to attend this event. In the past, Marc has gotten the chance to talk with FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly and Director Ajit Pai about 5G’s future in rural areas, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) about data privacy, and Congressman Ted Lieu about how education and innovation go hand-in-hand.

Due to COVID-19, AppCon 2020 has pivoted from its original arrangement — it has gone virtual! Thanks to this new digital format, the event is now spread over the course of four weeks so that attendees have a sufficient amount of time to discuss each important topic. Let’s take a look at the relevant issues that this year’s AppCon is tackling.

Why the App Economy Is Essential

Every year, AppCon is held by ACT | The App Association, an international organization that represents more than 5,000 small- and medium-sized tech companies across the mobile app economy. By connecting the tech industry’s top leaders with preeminent policymakers, ACT strives to drive smart innovation and regulation. Members of ACT include pioneers at the forefront of revolutionizing entertainment, improving productivity, enabling healthier lifestyles, and accelerating learning.

The app economy is probably bigger than you think; it’s a $1.7 trillion ecosystem that employs 5.9 million Americans. And this isn’t just in Silicon Valley; more than 83% of U.S. app companies are located outside of San Francisco. There are currently more than 2 million mobile apps available on major platforms like the App Store and Google Play. And with 3.4 billion app users around the world, it should come as no surprise that consumers spent more than $120 billion in app stores in 2019 — almost twice the amount they did in 2016.

Keeping the app economy strong and healthy is one of ACT’s biggest priorities, which is why the organization is extremely focused on building a workforce that’s educated and properly prepared for the 21st century. Despite a median annual salary exceeding $88,000, more than half a million computing jobs are unfilled in the United States. Only 65,000 U.S. college graduates earn a computer science degree each year, but this isn’t enough.

Computing and information technology occupations are projected to grow 12% by 2028, with software development jobs anticipated to grow by 21%. To address this substantial growth, ACT is urging Congress to pass the CHANCE in TECH Act, a legislation that would allow employers to streamline their apprenticeship processes and focus on developing and training job candidates correctly. ACT is also requesting that Congress appropriate at least $250 million to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) Master Teacher Corps (MTC) program so that educators can receive advanced training to teach computer science correctly.

Week 1: All About Broadband

It’s no secret that widespread internet access is an essential utility to sustain the continued growth of the app economy and numerous businesses. Besides this, hundreds of millions of Americans depend on the internet to access educational opportunities, healthcare services, and participate in the global economy in general. But more than 20 million U.S. citizens currently lack access to broadband connections, making the digital divide a colossal chasm.

In Week 1, AppCon will focus on facilitating discussions around how improved access to broadband in rural and urban communities can close this immense digital divide. Political and tech leaders will examine the benefits that come with using television white spaces (TVWS), broadband mapping, and of course, the deployment of 5G.

Week 2: More Connected Healthcare

The COVID-19 pandemic has pulled back the curtain on telehealth. Today, the advantages of connected health tools are readily apparent to patients, doctors, and lawmakers — and they’re simply too big to ignore. Week 2 of AppCon will hone in on everyday digital health examples from the COVID-19 crisis, including the recent results from temporarily lifting telehealth restrictions in the U.S.

AppCon’s attendees will also discuss aspects of healthcare policy including payment for digital health tools, removing reimbursement restrictions for them, interoperability, the WEAR IT Act, and the now obvious necessity of better access to telehealth services for all Americans. If you’re a healthcare app developer, you won’t want to miss this week!

Week 3: Prioritizing Privacy and Encryption

ACT’s member companies alone handle millions of terabytes of data every day. That means that each of these organizations is on the frontline of protecting sensitive user information and ensuring that it’s being used appropriately. Each ACT member knows that proper data security is imperative. That’s why AppCon ’20 Week 3 is dedicated to this vital topic.

Political leaders and ACT members will discuss current issues regarding privacy legislation and the need for ubiquitous end-to-end encryption. AppCon attendees will also tackle one of the most timely issues of the last few months: Facial recognition. By now, you’ve probably heard stories about how law enforcement has been using this technology during the protests across America. Week 3 of AppCon ’20 intends to get to the bottom of this topic and discuss its implications for the near and far future.

Week 4: Platforms and SEPs

What do online platforms, competition, and standard-essential patents (SEPs) mean for the app ecosystem’s future? There are a ton of moving parts that go into this topic, and they’ve only helped fuel various debates in recent months.

AppCon 2020 will close out its final week with a focus on discussion about platform regulations, including antitrust and Wi-Fi standards regulations, IoT device chips, Bluetooth, and much more.

Has this blog post got you excited about the weeks to come for AppCon 2020? For more info, click here!

Doing the right thing isn’t always easy. But it’s certainly necessary to progress in the correct direction. Congressman Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) recently introduced the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act.

If passed, the legislation would extend the telehealth policies implemented by the US Federal Government during the coronavirus pandemic. This would enable thousands of Americans to continue receiving access to emerging medical app technology — something that could make the crucial difference between life and death for senior citizens and those living in rural areas.

Expanding Modern Telemedicine Capabilities Is a Must

COVID-19 has exposed some significant flaws in the US healthcare system. Chief among them is the lack of access to adequate medical treatment for those living in remote regions.

If you don’t live in a major metropolitan area like New York City or Los Angeles, you’ve probably all too familiar with this problem. Rep. Gianforte has seen it firsthand in the state of Montana: “Many Montanans live in frontier and rural areas where access to doctors, particularly specialists, is a big challenge.”

Telemedicine has brought some invaluable benefits in our fight against COVID-19. And Gianforte is intent on keeping those advantages available. “Using technology to connect patients with doctors, telehealth tears down barriers, making it easier to see a doctor,” he explains. “This bill will keep the barriers down for good, ensuring Montanans have greater access to high-quality, more affordable care.”

Gianforte’s Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act is his latest in a long list of efforts to leverage telehealth to both increase access to medical care and reduce costs. Just this past February, he introduced bipartisan legislation with Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.), the Chair of the Health Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee, to expand telemedicine services. This endeavor was only amplified as COVID-19 outbreaks sprung up across the US in March.

Addressing a Remote Problem That Hits Close to Home

With the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services can waive geographical limitations beyond the public health emergency period specified by the CARES Act. Prior to this waiver, medicare beneficiaries wanting to use telehealth services could only do so at designated “originating sites” and only during physician shortages.

The new legislation aims to make the telehealth coverage at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and Rural Health Clinics (RHC) a permanent fixture. Essentially, this would enable rural providers to remotely serve patients and be properly compensated for their work.

The bill also removes restrictions on the provision of smart devices and other digital health technologies for patients. That’s huge — with remote monitoring and tracking, patients can be more proactive in improving their quality of life and reduce expensive trips to the emergency room.

We Proudly Support the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act

Many healthcare and medical technology organizations have voiced their support for Gianforte’s new legislation.

The Montana Hospital Association (MHA) has made telehealth’s integral role in managing the COVID-19 outbreak well known. “Access to this critically needed healthcare services was made possible through the expanded use of telemedicine. Legislation proposed by Congressman Gianforte will ensure this expanded access to care will continue,” explains Rich Rasmussen, President and CEO of the MHA.

Alongside the Connected Health Initiative (CHI), we also proudly stand by the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act. CHI is a coalition of ACT | The App Association. It’s composed of digital health ecosystem partners striving for positive policy changes that empower providers to harness the capabilities of emerging technologies like telemedicine. Committee members include Apple, Microsoft, Roche Holding AG, Intel, and Dogtown Media.

COVID-19 has made it clear that we need to improve how our healthcare system handles medical crises. The Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act represents a substantial step in the right direction — one that can lead us towards a healthier future for all.

Digital transformation is revolutionizing all industries. But no field is feeling its impact greater than healthcare. As a result, it’s vital that health tech developers and policymakers work together and collaborate to build a healthier future for all.

The Blue Button 2.0 Developers Conference (BBDC) strives to make this more feasible by connecting tech pioneers with preeminent political leaders to improve the interoperability of the US healthcare system. Marc Fischer, our Co-Founder and CEO, was in attendance at the second annual holding of this event.

In this post, we cover the most memorable highlights and announcements from BBDC 2019.

Opening a Dialogue for Healthcare Innovation

Held at the White House on July 30, 2019, by the Office of American Innovation (OAI), BBDC brings developers and policymakers together to learn and share insights from one another about how technology can best be leveraged to unleash new healthcare innovation. With an original focus on Medicare claims data, BBDC is intent on improving medical outcomes for all Americans.

Attendees at this year’s event included an array of leaders and innovators in the healthcare space. Government institutions such as the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) all had representatives present. Directors and chief executives from leading health providers as well as tech titans like Apple, Google, and Microsoft were also in attendance. And numerous startup founders, whose work ranged from incorporating AI chatbots into clinical studies to bringing mobile apps into clinical workflows, were also at the event.

BBDC 2019 speakers included leaders from various branches of the US government. Chris Liddell, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Coordination, gave opening remarks and welcomed CMS Administrator Seema Verma to the stage for her keynote address. Matthew Cutts, Administrator of the US Digital Service, also gave remarks. Cutts previously worked as part of Google’s search quality team and was the company’s head of web spam.

Empowering Patients With Better Data Access

Health record interoperability has been a red-hot topic for a number of years now. And due to its ability to empower all stakeholders in the US medical ecosystem, it was the main area of focus at BBDC 2019. At this year’s conference, CARIN, a nonprofit committed to consumer-directed health information exchange, unveiled its CARIN Blue Button API model and draft implementation guides.

Designed to provide patients with direct digital access to health insurance claims data, the CARIN Blue Button API is the private sector’s equivalent of the CMS’ Blue Button 2.0 (a program that helps Medicare beneficiaries access their claims data).

Beginning this year, the new initiative will be tested by twenty stakeholders including Anthem, Humana, Google, Apple, and Microsoft. It can hopefully move into production in 2020. “We envision a future where any consumer can choose any application to retrieve both their complete health record and their complete coverage information from any provider or health plan in the country,” the nonprofit explains in the new draft guidance.

With San Francisco Bay Area developers like Google and Apple supporting them, it looks like CARIN is well on its way towards achieving its vision.

Healthier Outcomes Depend on Interoperability

For her keynote address, CMS Administrator Seema Verma announced a similar endeavor to CARIN’s, but one that focuses on empowering healthcare providers and clinicians: Data at the Point of Care (DPC). Launched by CMS, this pilot program will give providers direct access to the claims data of Medicare beneficiaries so they can gain a more complete picture of patient history. Data can range from medication lists to previous diagnoses to medication lists.

Verma stated that this program builds off of Blue Button 2.0 and CMS’s MyHealtheData initiative, which strives to give patients more control over their data. “This new program will help fill in the areas of missing information that currently plague providers,” she explains. “By connecting claims data directly to providers at the point of care, providers will spend less time chasing down information or working with an incomplete picture of patients’ medical history.”

Providers can request access to the pilot on the program website. By participating, they can have direct access to patient information within their electronic health record workflow — no need to log into another application. CMS will begin deploying test data to the first few providers this month, with plans to start testing production data in September and October.

Politics can be truly divisive. But for topics like healthcare, data privacy, and education, we can all agree that smart reforms and regulations are sorely needed. Fortunately, progress is being made.

From April 28th to the 30th, AppCon 2019 gathered America’s top mobile app developers and preeminent politicians together in Washington, D.C. to discuss the most pressing issues facing technology and society in the near future.

Marc Fischer, our Co-Founder and CEO, was in attendance as a representative of California. He had the opportunity to talk tech with numerous political leaders at Capitol Hill. In this post, we’ve gathered some of Marc’s most memorable highlights from the event.

A Need for More Connected Healthcare

Each year, AppCon is hosted by ACT, the App Association. ACT is one of the leading public policy organizations in Washington, D.C. and represents technology companies, startups, and innovators across the country. By opening a dialogue with the country’s premier political leaders, ACT aims to protect and foster the tech industry by opening up opportunities for smarter regulations.

Healthcare is a topic near and dear to ACT’s heart. The organization started the Connected Health Initiative (CHI), a coalition of healthcare industry stakeholders, in order to spur improvement of patient engagement and outcomes through technology. So it should come as no surprise that some of the biggest obstacles in healthcare today took center-stage in many of Marc’s meetings.

Thanks to technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), great leaps are being made in remote patient monitoring (RPM). Smart assistants like Alexa, home robotics systems, and wearable technologies are all bringing unprecedented value to point of care thanks to AI and IoT.

But some issues are still impeding progress in RPM. Marc and other AppCon attendees had the chance to discuss RPM reimbursement standards with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). It can be challenging for physicians to receive proper remuneration for time spent on telehealth consultations. This certainly needs to change.

Another hot topic was loosening restrictions on which medical professionals can review patient data. By opening this up to caregivers, nurses, and other people besides doctors, all stakeholders involved can gain a more holistic perspective on a patient’s health.

Marc also had the opportunity to meet with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to discuss digital transformation in the healthcare system. It’s well known that there are some huge inefficiencies present when it comes to data exchange of electronic health records (EHR). To fix this, ACT’s members and the ONC are working together to pilot new projects that can help accelerate data portability and innovation in health IT.

Both RPM and data portability would go a long way towards helping those with chronic health conditions. Currently, 130 million Americans suffer from chronic health conditions. This ends up costing the U.S. economy more than $2.5 trillion per year. With Representatives Joseph Kennedy III (D-MA 4th District), Danny Davis (IL 7th District), Judy Chu (D-CA 27th District), and Senator Amy Klovuchar, Marc discussed potential telehealth solutions to lower costs and boost quality of care for RPM.

Among these possible solutions is the Wearable Equipment Adoption and Reinforcement and Investment in Technology (WEAR IT) Act. This would allow people to apply their HSAs or FSAs to cover part of the cost (up to $250) of consumer-facing medical wearables and other devices that have healthcare attributes. For example, you could apply this $250 towards the purchase of a new Apple Watch. Essentially, this new legislation would benefit patients with chronic illnesses immensely by making it easier for them to attain devices that could improve their quality of life.

Preparing for 5G

As we’ve covered in previous posts, 5G is fast approaching. But there are still some hiccups to work out. Marc met with FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly to discuss the standardization of this new wireless paradigm and what exactly constitutes 5G.

Recently, major telecom companies have been in a race to roll out 5G to their customers. And some have taken shortcuts. Most notable among them is A&T; the company released a platform called 5G Evolution (5GE) which isn’t actually 5G; it’s more of a foundation for when the real thing arrives.

But ensuring 5G arrives in metropolitan areas like New York City or San Francisco is not enough. Commissioner Michael O’Rielly and Marc also talked about the need for the FCC to take more of a leading role in ensuring 5G is faster to roll out to rural areas which were overlooked during the rollout of 4G.

This is crucial for many reasons. Not only will 5G open up opportunities for innovation in IoT, AI, and connected vehicles, but it will also bring possibilities for improvement in RPM and telehealth — both of which are sorely needed in rural areas.

Doubling Down on Data Privacy

Marc also had the chance to speak with representatives from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at the White House about data privacy. Preserving the integrity of our personal information is becoming more important than ever before. But doing this can often conflict with other endeavors.

As part of the AI Executive Order, the Trump administration issued executive mandates to open up data in an effort to accelerate AI innovation in America. Much of Marc’s conversation with the OSTP revolved around balancing out this order with updated standards for user privacy, data management, and the right to confidentiality.

Updating these cyber policies to ensure that both individuals and organizations are protected from internal and external espionage is a must. And the first step towards doing this is to have more government support in investigating acts of espionage or data leakages.

Large enterprise organizations need to be held accountable for leaking private customer information and not sharing this information until much later. A prime example of this is the Equifax hack; the company knew they had been hacked for four months before they went public with this information.

Progress Is Being Made

After four years of meeting with political leaders on Capitol Hill, ACT’s members are finally starting to see the fruits of their labor. RPM statutes have been written into law so that doctors can be properly reimbursed for their telehealth work. $250 million in federal funds have been released to support STEM education. And the government is beginning to better understand its role in the rollout of 5G.

We’re excited by the opportunities to innovate in the American economy with new technologies like AI, machine learning, and 5G. By driving the next wave of innovation, US tech leaders can help cement America’s leadership position in the world by creating jobs, boosting productivity, and increasing wages.

And from what Marc gathered at AppCon ’19, it looks like we’re right on track to do this. By collaborating together, the tech and political leaders of the United States can make a brighter future for us all.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has always been focused on accelerating the progress of technologies with profound potential. So it’s no surprise that it’s interested in artificial intelligence (AI).

Last week, the ambitious experimental arm of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced it would be investing $2 billion in AI and machine learning development in just the next five years.

Accelerating the Third Wave

The large investment amount will be spread across a multitude of endeavors under a program dubbed the “AI Next” campaign. “Machines lack contextual reasoning capabilities, and their training must cover every eventuality, which is not only costly but ultimately impossible,” says Dr. Steven Walker, director of the program. “We want to explore how machines can acquire human-like communication and reasoning capabilities, with the ability to recognize new situations and environments and adapt to them.”

This mission aligns with DARPA’s AI Exploration (AIE) program, an initiative for fostering the “third wave” of AI, intelligence that can comprehend and explain how it comes to conclusions. Announced just last July, the AIE program will be a “key component” of the “AI Next” campaign.

But it will be far from the only focus; “Key areas of the campaign include automating critical DoD business processes, such as security clearance vetting or accrediting software systems for operational deployment,” according to the agency’s website.

Still Anyone’s Game

DARPA has over five decades of AI research experience. But in the last few years, countries like China have eclipsed these efforts and those of U.S. AI hubs of development like San Francisco. Earlier this summer, China made its intent to become an AI leader by 2030 known to the world.

AI, especially machine learning, is still in its nascent stages. The technology still has numerous flaws, such as bias, to wrestle with. Despite this, the potential of AI cannot be overstated. It could transform various aspects of society, from how the general public interacts with technology to how governmental institutions work.

In DARPA’s case, they’ve painted a picture of their vision for AI: “DARPA envisions a future in which machines are more than just tools that execute human-programmed rules or generalize from human-curated data sets. Rather, the machines DARPA envisions will function more as colleagues than as tools.”

What do you think of the current AI race? Let us know in the comments!

Who said all the hot artificial intelligence (AI) innovation is being developed in San Francisco and other U.S. tech hubs? China has built AI-powered submarines — and plans to launch them in hotly-contested surrounding seas by 2020.

Many Questions, Few Answers

Many of the details surrounding these submarines are shrouded in secrecy. Per the South China Morning Post (SCMP), they’ll be capable of carrying out “[…] a wide range of missions, from reconnaissance to mine placement to even suicide attacks against enemy vessels.” To allay concerns, one unnamed scientist also told the SCMP that they “will not be nuclear-armed.”

For now, it’s known that the AI systems will be used to make decisions about the submarine’s trajectory, mainly helping with identifying other entities and avoiding detection. Whether or not the AI will seek human input or be completely autonomous is still not understood yet.

It’s likely that these subs will be deployed in the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, both of which are the subjects of intense controversy. Neighboring countries like Vietnam and Japan strongly disagree with China about who has the rights to these areas rich with resources. Recently, China has created artificial islands in these regions to be utilized as military bases. So it’s no surprise that this submarine news could escalate this into a serious situation.

Not the Only Sea Vessel With Smarts

We’d be remiss to leave out the fact that China’s not the only country interested in autonomous aquatic vessels. Lin Yang, the marine technology equipment director at the Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, stated that China undertook this endeavor in response to similar projects by the U.S.

Earlier in 2018, DARPA, the DoD’s research arm, gave the U.S. Navy the ASWACTUW (Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel) experimental craft. Also called the “Sea Hunter,” this autonomous vessel will be able to handle three-month-long missions alone once it’s completed.

Coincidentally (or maybe not), the U.S. is also hard at work with major defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing to develop two other autonomous submarine systems by 2020.

The Advent of AI Warfare?

As if there wasn’t enough hot debate surrounding the topic of AI-fueled warfare, this recent news raises a plethora of questions. Will these submarines be able to attack on their own? What happens if they go rogue or are compromised by a hacker?

Jim Mattis, the current U.S. Secretary of Defense, shines some insight on the trouble of involving AI in warfare: “If we ever get to the point where it is completely on automatic pilot, we are all spectators. That is no longer serving a political purpose. And conflict is a social problem that needs social solutions, people—human solutions.”

Many AI developers, researchers, and thought leaders echo the same sentiment. A recent open letter signed by thousands was sent to the U.N. it asked for a ban on AI-enhanced weaponry:

“Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare. Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend. These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways. We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close.”

How do you think this situation should be handled? How can we successfully regulate AI? This technology represents the potential for a greater future for humanity. But if left unchecked in the wrong hands, that future may not be as bright as we once thought.

Last year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported that the comments section of its website was hacked. Recently, the agency confirmed what many had already suspected — the hack never actually happened.

Smoke and Mirrors

Back in May 2017, the idea of the FCC repealing net neutrality was starting to become more of a real threat. Comedian and talk show host John Oliver encouraged his audience to leave comments on the agency’s site urging them not to.

Ready to take a stance against repealing net neutrality, visitors flocked to the site — and discovered that it was down. This wasn’t that out of the ordinary. After all, websites go down all the time. And in this case, most people assumed it was simply due to too much traffic.

But this was not so, said the FCC. Instead, the agency claimed to be the victim of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, an assault in which a hacker (or group of hackers) overwhelms a site by bombarding it with too much data at once.

Thanks, Obama

Recently, the FCC has backtracked on this hacking claim. A recent statement from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai instead places the blame elsewhere (surprise, surprise). Pai says the only reason the FCC thought it was hacked was because someone from the Obama administration said so!

This deflection of blame isn’t unusual for the FCC or Pai. For the last year, they’ve dodged any questioning about the hacking, refused to release any information about it, and never updated the public about the investigation.

This “beating around the bush” finally backfired when the Office of Inspector General (OIG) prepared to release a report on its findings of the incident. The report still hasn’t been published, but let me save you some trouble: the OIG concluded the hack never happened.

Pai’s Statement

In an effort to beat the report to the punchline, Pai released a statement in which he basically blames everyone else for assuming the incident was a hack at all:

“With respect to the report’s findings, I am deeply disappointed that the FCC’s former Chief Information Officer (CIO), who was hired by the prior Administration and is no longer with the Commission, provided inaccurate information about this incident to me, my office, Congress, and the American people. This is completely unacceptable.”

Pai left no stone unturned in his finger-pointing:

“I’m also disappointed that some working under the former CIO apparently either disagreed with the information that he was presenting or had questions about it, yet didn’t feel comfortable communicating their concerns to me or my office.”

Who’s Held Accountable?

So far, there’s no indication that the agency will face any consequences from this deliberate diversion. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is looking into the incident.

Pai did admit that the hacking investigation has made it clear the FCC desperately needs to update its comment system. And apparently, now, it has the funds to do exactly that.

It shouldn’t have to be said that this sort of blame game is completely unacceptable. Whether you’re a politician in Washington or a mobile app developer in San Francisco, the FCC’s behavior affects everyone as we’ve seen from the recent net neutrality repeal.

What do you make of this debacle? Let us know in the comments!

When you were in high school, did you have to show your work in math class to get credit? The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants artificial intelligence (AI) to do the same.

Recently, it announced the Artificial Intelligence Exploration (AIE) program, an initiative focused on fostering AI development that can understand and explain how it comes to conclusions.

Catalyzing AI Cognition

DARPA is a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) agency concentrated on accelerating the creation of disruptive technologies. So it’s no surprise that they’re interested in making third-wave AI (the kind that can walk you through how it arrived at an answer) into a reality.

Most AI currently in use falls under the first-wave category. Basically, this type of AI can follow logical rules. Great examples of this are chess- or Go-playing AIs. Second-wave AI is a little more nuanced; they typically rely heavily on statistical learning to get results. An example of this would be image recognition.

A third-wave AI can do everything the first- and second-wave AIs can do, but it can also explain itself. For instance, let’s say you had AI that could identify an image of a dog. A third-wave version of this would be able to note that it came to this conclusion because of the animal’s tail, four legs, and other common characteristics of man’s best friend.

Funding the Future

Although it’s headquartered in Arlington, VA, far away from the San Francisco development community and the other AI hot spots, DARPA plans on tapping into all of this potential through funding. The way it works is the agency will release an “AIE Opportunity” notice that highlights a particular area of AI research that the military is interested in developing.

From there, researchers and developers can submit project proposals to DARPA. After review, the agency will award the winner with up to $1 million in funding. DARPA would like each initiative to be started within 90 days of the announcement and for winners to determine if the concept is even feasible within 18 months of commencement.

Thinking Differently

John Launchbury, Director of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office, believes third-wave AI systems will also require far smaller datasets than their first- and second- wave counterparts. For example, if an AI previously needed 100,000 images of handwriting to recognize it, a third-wave AI may only need one or two examples. Basically, it would break down how each letter is formed, and translate this context to identify other handwriting.

One of the biggest draws of third-wave AI is the fact that they’d ‘think’ rather than just come to calculated answers based on datasets and predetermined logical rules. Having AI that can reason and explain its abstract thoughts would have a huge impact on not only the field but how we all employ the technology in the future.