About the Program
Governments around the world are capitalizing on digital innovation. They are using innovative new tools such as big data analytics, social networks, predictive algorithms, and machine learning to better anticipate societal issues and address them through smart decision-making. However, these technological tools also pose substantial challenges to governing bodies. Developing innovation and deploying it in a way that benefits the public while offsetting potential societal harms is extremely challenging—particularly for large organizations reliant on public funds and constrained by policy, regulation, legislation, and divisive public discourse. In the coming years, decision-makers all over the world will have to grapple with regulating existing and emerging technologies for the public good in a complex geopolitical environment, scaling them to benefit entire populations, ensuring that there is a future technology workforce to continue to responsibly develop and deploy them, and building in trust and accountability into the technological innovation process. The GeoTech Center works with partners to empower governments and civil society to effectively use, regulate, and promote emerging technologies through research, education, and curated convenings.
