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.

Research shows that China’s artificial intelligence (AI) development is picking up at an unprecedented pace. Can the United States keep up with ambitious, out-there ideas?

On Track to Overtake the US

Last June, Apple and Google sponsored an academic contest at the world’s premier computer vision conference. The tech titans wanted to see if algorithms could make sense of twin camera images that varied in weather conditions from sunny to rainy. Doing so would be a lucrative achievement that could help the San Francisco-based developers with endeavors in autonomous vehicles and augmented reality.

Unfortunately for them, the contest’s winner was China’s National University of Defense Technology, a military academy with different objectives and allegiances. This event highlights how far China’s AI ambitions have come. In 2017, the country announced an AI strategy that would rival the US’s domain expertise by 2020. And the latest output data puts them right on track to do so.

Since 2005, long before the announcement of their AI strategy, Chinese researchers have published far more papers than their US counterparts. Chinese institutions have gained a reputation for low-quality (and even fraudulent) research, so naturally, questions have arisen about the work’s merit. But the numbers paint a different picture.

The Allen Institute recently analyzed data of more than 2 million AI research papers. It found that the ratio of top AI publications from China is rapidly approaching that of the US. And if the country keeps this pace up, it will be equal to the US by 2020. Even when the institute repeated the analysis to focus on research papers most cited, the US still did not come out on top very far ahead of China.

Government VS Corporate Support

Obviously, citations aren’t a perfect gauge of the quality and influence of research, so the Allen Institute plans to follow up with more analysis. But Oren Etzioni, the Allen Institute’s CEO, says one thing is readily apparent: The US government need to support American AI endeavors better.

From its military academy’s recent win in Apple’s and Google’s contest, it’s clear that the Chinese government has been very supportive of the country’s AI endeavors. And this investment is only growing. The country’s defense ministry plans to set up two new research centers in Beijing that are completely devoted to AI and unmanned systems.

Research from the Stanford-affiliated AI Index also shines a light on the Chinese government’s involvement—between 2007 and 2017, government-affiliated AI research papers grew by 400 percent. This absolutely dwarfs the output growth from Chinese corporations. In contrast, the US highly relies on companies like Alphabet for AI innovation; US corporate involvement in AI publications is seven times higher than that of China’s.

Recently, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a high-level AI strategy called the American AI Initiative. The order, which calls for more funding, resource allocation, and government involvement in AI, means well, but it has garnered skepticism. “It was well-intentioned but low on specifics, and it didn’t deliver the two most important things that we need—a more welcoming immigration policy to draw top research talent and significantly more research funding,” explains Etzioni.

Can Out-There AI Ideas Save America?

Putting Trump’s plans aside, there is one government entity that is focused on accelerating American AI innovation: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). When it comes to emerging technologies, the US has a long tradition of doubling down on crazy ideas. And DARPA is usually the one to see them through.

Recently, the agency showcased projects that are part of its AI Next campaign, a five-year, $2 billion plan to make the next round of radical AI concepts a reality. Initiatives under this plan include giving machines common sense, making them learn faster and need less data for training, and creating chips that can reconfigure to account for new AI capabilities.

Michael Kratsios, Deputy Assistant to President Trump for Technology Policy, says DARPA’s endeavors are essential to America staying ahead in AI: “This administration supports DARPA’s commitment, and shares its intense interest in developing and applying artificial intelligence. DARPA has a long history of making early investments in fundamental research that has had amazing benefits.”

Since its inception in 1957, DARPA has been behind some of the world’s biggest tech breakthroughs. In the ’60s, it created the networking technology that would eventually become the Internet. And more recently, it invested in the personal assistant project that would eventually become Siri, Apple’s famous AI helper.

Building a Foundation for AI’s Future

But with AI, the agency faces a different type of challenge: many of the algorithms being employed today were actually developed decades ago. As a result, they’re quite limited in capability. “We are harvesting the intellectual fruit that was planted decades ago,” explains DARPA’s Information Innovation Office Deputy Director, John Everett. “That’s why we’re looking at far forward challenges—challenges that might not come to fruition for a decade.”

So for DARPA’s AI initiatives, the agency is focused on making longlasting advancements that address these limitations. For example, giving AI common sense would fix a weakness that causes many of today’s systems to fail. Often AI systems are limited by their narrow understanding of the world. By broadening AI’s perception and reasoning abilities, using tools like AI assistants would become more intuitive and allow robots to navigate unfamiliar territory much better.

Using less data would also help circumvent another AI limitation unique to the US. Training data often determines the effectiveness of machine learning applications. But with much more stringent regulations around data, the US often falls behind China, which has access to an abundance of information that it can use in AI initiatives.

Whether the projects under DARPA’s AI Next initiative accomplish their objectives remains to be seen. But they do make one thing clear: It’s quite difficult to gauge progress and expertise in AI. Calling this competition between China and the US a race makes it seem like there’s only one path or destination to reach to achieve victory.

But this couldn’t be further from reality. In truth, which country wins will come down to smarter allocation and more innovative use of resources. And as far as this goes, each country is taking a radically different approach from the other. It will be interesting to see how things play out. What do you think will happen in the next few years? Let us know in the comments!

The acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI) has piqued the interest of many countries such as the United States, Russia, and China. Now, they’re all in a race to become the foremost authority in the technology.

Recently, the US Pentagon released an unclassified version of its AI strategy—but will these plans be enough to outpace the competition?

A Matter of National Security

The US has a long, winding history with AI that predates the 1970s. Back then, the Department of Defense (DoD) began funding a small group of AI developers and researchers to make a radical concept a reality: Give machines autonomous intelligence.

Since then, the government’s interest (and investment) in AI has ebbed and flowed. But the technology’s potential could not be ignored. And in the past few decades, more of it than ever has been realized. Re-catalyzing interest in the technology around the world, these advancements have many countries believing that AI is their path to a more prosperous future.

The Pentagon sees AI playing a central role in American national security. This is why its new AI strategy prioritizes rapid AI adoption for each US military branch. For the plan to work, the Pentagon will have to work closely with the American tech sector, particularly when it comes to cloud computing resources and sourcing algorithms.

Dana Deasy is the DoD’s chief information officer. He explains that Chinese and Russian investments in AI applications for their militaries helped shape the US AI strategy: “AI will not only increase the prosperity of the nation but enhance our national security. We must adopt AI to maintain our strategic position and prevail on future battlefields.”

The Heart of American AI

At the center of the DoD’s AI strategy is the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC). Established in June 2018, the JAIC acts as the hub of the Pentagon’s efforts to support AI’s incorporation into all military branches. Essentially, any DoD AI projects valued more than $15 million will be vetted at the JAIC.

The center will also work on its own AI initiatives with the help of US tech titans. According to federal contracting records, several famous organizations are already on board with the idea. IBM, Google, Oracle, and SAP are among companies that have expressed interest in involvement with future DoD AI initiatives.

Previous joint ventures between the Pentagon and the tech industry did not go over well with the public. Last year, thousands of Google employees walked out of their offices to protest the company’s work and involvement with Project Maven, an initiative that utilized AI to detect vehicles and other objects in military drone footage.

The controversy ended with the company not renewing a contract to continue work on this endeavor. Shortly after, Google CEO Sundar Pichai released guidelines for use of the company’s AI. While they expressly forbid work on weapons, the guidelines did allow for contributions toward other military projects.

In 2017, the JAIC was first proposed by the DoD’s Defense Innovation Board. Eric Schmidt, previous chairman and CEO of Google, chairs the board. Brendan McCord, the previous head of machine learning at the Defense Innovation Unit (a DoD organization focused on helping the US military embrace emerging tech), was the primary architect of the JAIC’s structure. He’s also the primary writer of the DoD’s AI strategy.

Project Maven’s Popularity

Lt. Gen. John “Jack” Shanahan acts as the director of the JAIC. He led Project Maven and thinks many of the JAIC’s future projects will be collaborations with tech companies. “Commercial solutions are available for most of the problems we’ve discovered in the past and will discover in the future,” he explains. “That is where some of the world’s best talent resides right now.”

While Project Maven wasn’t exactly popular with Google employees and the general public, it was a hit with the US military and is currently being integrated into the JAIC. William Carter, the deputy director of technology policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, believes this was due to the return on investment: “One of the most remarkable things about Maven was that it was so cheap relative to the power of the system that was developed.”

During their most recent budget requests, both the Marine Corps and Air Force discussed their intentions to expand the use of Maven algorithms by using them on “multiple unmanned aerial vehicles” to identify targets based on drone data. Each drone would be equipped with cameras that can monitor 40 square miles of area simultaneously.

Plans Set In Motion

While the JAIC’s future budget hasn’t been finalized yet, a recent Pentagon budget request document estimates the center’s budget for this year to be $89 million. In 2020, it’s anticipated to be $414 billion. These funds would not only go toward working with many tech companies but may also be used to set up satellite locations near the San Francisco development community.

As far as projects go, the JAIC already has several in the pipeline. One initiative is focused on training algorithms to predict maintenance needs for H-60 helicopters, a model utilized across various US military services. Another endeavor is training Maven-type algorithms to identify firebreaks in plane footage of wildfires so that disaster response efforts can be expedited.

Cybersecurity is also at the top of the Pentagon’s priorities and will probably garner some of the JAIC’s funding for new endeavors. In 2016, the DoD held a contest in Las Vegas that had bots trying to hack one another while fixing their own exposed flaws. The winner took home $2 million.

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The potential of artificial intelligence (AI) is too big for governments to ignore. The U.S. Department of Commerce is considering imposing national security restrictions on the technology.

But what may be an attempt to protect American innovation could end up being beneficial for competitors.

Protecting or Stifling American Innovation?

Since its inception, San Francisco developers and techies have dominated the Internet. And if you ask industry insiders, many of them would say that it’s due to the fact that the Internet was invented and built by Americans. The advent and acceleration of AI development have caused many people to view it as a technology that will become as vital to humanity as the World Wide Web. It’s also raised the question of who will lead this next wave of innovation.

Last November, the U.S. Commerce Department issued a list of technologies being considered for new export rules due to their integral role in national security. AI was, of course, among the entries. The possibility of restricting U.S. AI exports now has many industry players worried that this will impede America in the race to become a world leader in the technology. And it could also conceivably lead to competing countries like China flourishing in their own AI endeavors.

Jack Clark is the head of policy at OpenAI, a non-profit artificial intelligence research organization. He thinks these regulations could be difficult to implement: “The number of cases where exports can be sufficiently controlled are very, very, very small, and the chance of making an error is quite large. If this goes wrong, it could do real damage to the A.I. community.”

The Export Controls Act of 2018

These export regulations are being considered during a troubling time; currently, China and the United States are locked in a trade war. China’s negotiation tactics with American companies have been a point of contingency with the Trump administration.

The country often requires these organizations to transfer their technology to Chinese partners in order to do business there. Through this and other avenues such as industrial espionage, federal officials believe China has actually stolen American innovation. Last August, Congress took measures to thwart this theft by passing the Export Controls Act of 2018. Essentially, this added export restrictions for “emerging and foundational technologies.”

As mentioned before, the Commerce Department, which is responsible for monitoring and maintaining these regulations, released a follow-up list in mid-November of technologies being considered. Multiple AI categories such as natural language processing, computer vision, and speech recognition were included.

While the list did not specify, these proposed restrictions would only affect certain countries. The Commerce Department did, however, allude to countries which have previously faced trade embargoes, like Russia, Iran, and China. The proposal is open for public comment until January 10. After this day, the department will work on drafting a formal version, which could result in a variety of measures, from licensing rules to outright bans.

Who Will Build the Foundation of the Future?

Many policymakers, tech companies, and AI researchers have already appealed to the Commerce Department to take a light-handed approach to AI regulations.

Their arguments boil down to three main points: Technological innovation could be impeded in general as a result of strict controls. Regulations could not only do damage to U.S. companies but actually help international competition. And last but not least, these restrictions may not make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.

AI’s effects on the global economy and humanity will undoubtedly be profound. And whoever leads this charge will also be guaranteed a spot as a world leader. But U.S. dominance in this technology is definitely no guarantee.

China has made its plans to be the premier leader in AI well known. And it’s investing billions in commercial and military applications for AI to make it happen. But it’s far from the only competition the U.S. faces.

Collaboration or Competition?

AI research hubs are opening up all over the world. Currently, there are major centers already in Beijing, Toronto, and Cambridge, among other places. To complicate matters for U.S. policymakers, AI researchers from different countries don’t exactly see each other as competition, but more as partners in collaboration.

Developments in the field are often completed and contributed by engineers and scientists around the world. And most companies working on AI prescribe to the open-source philosophy; they share what they learn and benefit from others building off their findings.

And more often than not, what one company considers a personal “breakthrough” is usually only made possible due to research occurring at other companies or in academia. This makes drawing the line on what’s American and what’s not incredibly difficult.

Where to Draw the Line?

R. David Edelman is a technology policy researcher at MIT and former special assistant for economic and technology policy under former president Barack Obama.

“The core of these technologies is international and freely available,” he says. “No country — the U.S. or China — has a monopoly on that.”

Currently, federal restrictions excuse publicly available information from export control. This makes it highly unlikely that the U.S. government would stop academic or corporate researchers from publishing their AI findings on sites like Arxiv.org, which act as repositories for the code behind the technology. Instead, it’s more likely that U.S. policymakers would move to restrict foreign access to this information.

As if things weren’t convoluted enough, AI is considered a dual-use technology due to its utilization in both commercial and military settings. It can be used to drive your car for you or to help a weaponized drone find its targets. And the boundaries between the two quickly get blurred when examining the “nuts ‘n’ bolts” behind such seemingly different applications.

“Trying to draw a line between what is military and what is commercial is exceedingly difficult,” says Edelman. “It may be impossible.”

How do you think the U.S. should approach AI with regard to international matters? Is closing off American innovation to foreign competitors the right move? Or will it eventually backfire? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Google’s Colorful History with China

You’re probably remembering when Google first pulled out of China almost a decade ago. The San Francisco-based tech giant strongly disagreed with the country’s non-negotiable censorship request. Since then, the company got a new CEO, among many other changes internally. Now, Google is open to a censored search engine that would yield no results for queries involving the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, human rights, and student protests.

But Google’s lagging behind by not reaching China’s multi-billion Internet users; it’s missing out on user data and advertising revenues. China, on the other hand, has gotten worse with public humiliations for jaywalking, giving law enforcement AI-enabled facial recognition tools, and continuing to censor foreign content.

The Senate Hearing

The hearing took place to talk about data privacy; representatives from Amazon, Apple, Twitter, and other tech and internet service companies were in attendance.

Google sent their chief privacy officer, Keith Enright, to field questions from senators about the company’s intentions in offering a censored search engine mobile app developed for Chinese consumers.

Senators asked Enright about how Google’s policies regarding user privacy would translate to the Chinese product; they’d recently heard that the company planned to link searches to users’ cell phone numbers. Would this data be sold to the Chinese government to punish any non-abiding Chinese citizens?

Enright simply answered most questions vaguely: “I will say that my understanding is that we are not, in fact, close to launching a search product in China, and whether we would or could at some point in the future remains unclear. If we were, in fact, to finalize a plan to launch a search product in China, my team would be actively engaged.”

No New Information Provided

He declined to speak about the implications of privacy and human rights resulting from use of the Chinese app.

Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican representative for Texas, asked Enright if Project Dragonfly existed. If so, Cruz asked, what is it?

Enright vaguely answered again: “I’m not clear on the contours of what is in scope or out of the scope of that project.”

When Cruz prodded Enright about whether Enright thinks China’s government censors content its citizens see, Enright once again vaguely responded, “As the privacy representative of Google I’m not sure that have an informed opinion on that question.”

When asked if Enright thinks Google’s search results are biased, Enright said no. When asked if Google supports laws surrounding protecting data, Enright responded with a yes.

The Infamous Memo

Earlier in September, Google deleted an employee-written memo circulated internally; it told employees that Google was working on Project Dragonfly, and it was to be prepared to launch the search engine at a moment’s notice when Beijing officials approve it.

The memo said that Chinese users would be required to log in before being allowed to search; the app would track location and share the search history with a Chinese company that would have “unilateral access” to the users’ data.

After the memo was deleted, Google human resources employees reached out to employees they thought accessed the memo or saved a copy. The employees were told to immediately delete the memo, an email that came with pixel tracking that alerted human resources when the email was opened and read.

Lack of Data Privacy

The memo also detailed that Chinese users’ movements, their IP address, and clicked links would be important data to collect and store. Google would partner with a Chinese company that could add to Google’s blacklisted search queries and even edit search results.

Because any Chinese company is involved with this project, the Chinese government could demand access to the data at any time. Human rights activists said Chinese citizens would be in danger, interrogated, or detained.

Patrick Poon is a researcher based in Hong Kong at Amnesty International. He is concerned about Project Dragonfly, saying, “It’s alarming to hear that such information will be stored and, potentially, easily shared with the Chinese authorities. It will completely put users’ privacy and safety at risk. Google needs to immediately explain if the app will involve such arrangements. It’s time to give the public full transparency of the project.”

We Still Don’t Know Anything

When Google initially pulled out of China, they cited that the government was too strict and overbearing. The Chinese government was hacking into Gmail accounts of suspects and censoring whatever Google search results they could.

And recently with Google’s renewed interest in China, Google’s become even more private about releasing information. Often, the American public hears about these “projects” when the project has already been fleshed out internally and a minimum viable product has already been developed. In other words, we don’t hear about Google’s innovations early enough to have a say in what the company does.

Although Sundar Pichai, the current CEO of Google, claimed that Dragonfly wasn’t well-developed yet, you can extrapolate what it means when there are 215+ employees assigned to work on Dragonfly full-time. This amount of employees working on one project makes the project one of the biggest at the company; source code even started developing back in May 2017.

The memo’s author said they stood in opposition to Chinese censorship, but “more than the project itself, I hate the culture of secrecy that has been built around it.”

Not Enough Transparency

If none of this instills fear or anger in you, you should know that Google is highly aggressive against leaks, and it has a security and investigation team to stop leaks, dubbed “stopleaks” internally. The team is also tasked with monitoring discussions internally between employees.

An employee who read the memo said it mentioned that “leadership misled engineers working on [Dragonfly] about the nature of their work, depriving them of moral agency”.

All of this, including Enright’s vague testimony, have hurt Google’s, and subsequently the rest of Silicon Valley’s, trustworthiness among the public. We don’t know if Google really follows the “Don’t be evil” motto it was founded on, and that uncertainty will be difficult to reverse.

What do you think about Google’s recent activity, internally and in China?