Today's revolutions in technology are at the heart of our competition with geopolitical rivals. They pose a real test to our security, and they also represent an engine of historic possibility for our economies, democracies, people, and planet, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the RSA conference in San Francisco.
The United States believes emerging and foundational technologies can and should be used to drive prosperity and human rights, and to solve shared global challenges.
The standards that societies follow are going to determine whether this technology is used for good or whether it's used for ill. That's why the United States has stepped up to “ensure that foundational technologies sustain our democratic values and guard against harms,” said Secretary Blinken.
But in order to write the rules of the road, the United States must compete across the globe in the technologies that will shape the digital and physical experience, said Secretary Blinken:
“That's why we're unleashing our diplomatic arsenal to help innovative companies from the United States and our partners fairly compete for opportunities up and down the stack that will help preserve and expand a secure and open a resilient tech world.”
Competing effectively abroad will depend on building resilient and trusted technology ecosystems, with everything from research and development to manufacturing to markets and also supply chains, said Secretary Blinken.
“Right now, the world's tech manufacturing infrastructure is dangerously concentrated in a few narrow geographic areas, and in the event of military conflicts, natural disaster, those supply chains could be cut off. To lessen that risk, the United States is forging tech partnerships that will make critical technology supply chains more resilient, more diverse, more secure.”
And finally, the U.S.is working to protect the most sensitive technologies.
“When it comes to technologies with clear connections to military capabilities and human rights abuses, we have to slow down our competitors efforts,” said Secretary Blinken. “We can't tolerate technologies that the United States has developed being used against us or our friends, falling into the hands of bad actors or helping advance the military capabilities of strategic competitors. That's why we issued carefully tailored restrictions on advanced semiconductor exports.”
Working together, we can seize this moment in time to harness technology in service of the common good.
