GeoTech Center

The U.S.’ economic competitiveness depends on a deep base of manufacturing and service capabilities that enable cutting-edge technologies to proliferate. In this piece, the author argues that “strategic government spending must be translated into positive economic spillovers for ‘middle-skill’ workers. What’s needed,” he writes “is a coordinated approach to funneling federal, state, and local resources to target sectors and jobs.”

On a radically transformed planet, different conceptual maps are necessary for understanding what today’s priorities must be. These maps, or mental models, inform the framing that policy and decision makers use to weigh their options. Limitations in our conceptual frames can drastically limit the scope of considered futures.

GeoTech Fellow Tarun Wadhwa writes on Foreign Policy magazine, warning on the need for an international regulatory response to the development and usage of new technologies in the world in the years to come. “We urgently need a global ethical consensus on how far technological advances can go,” he says.

On March 9, 2021, Russia and China signed a landmark agreement to build an international autonomous lunar base on the moon. On this episode of Fast Thinking, Atlantic Council experts Divya Chander and David Bray explore what this announcement will mean for geopolitics and the commercialization of space—touching on space mining, the Artemis Accords, the Outer Space Treaty, and what we can learn from native cultures about the rights of our planet and others.

An episode of the GeoTech Hour exploring the intersection of technology, policy, and the global food system.

In mid-2020, a multidisciplinary team of North Americans and African expatriates at The Mentor Project assembled to bring MVM ventilators to Sub-Saharan Africa. Coordinating with hospitals in seven West African countries, they identified over 500 intensive care beds with the infrastructure to operate ventilators. Here is their story.

An episode of the GeoTech Hour focusing on the concept of digital identity, and how it can eliminate barriers and promote inclusion.

On Thursday, October 22, the GeoTech Center hosted the fifth installment of the Data Salon Series in partnership with Accenture to discuss the challenges to achieving data sovereignty for indigenous communities.

A live event marking the one-year anniversary of the GeoTech Center, with panelists discussing the “GeoTech Decade” ahead.

GeoTech Center and Commission Launch on 11 March 2020. Focused efforts on determining priorities for future investment and cooperation between public and private sector entities seeking to develop new technologies and data initiatives specifically for global benefit.

On-going, private deliberations of the GeoTech Commissioners. Focused efforts on how can either societies or markets characterize new technologies and data choices regarding measurable benefits to people, prosperity, and peace.

The Data Salon Series discusses data ethics among academics, policy makers, industry executives, and practitioners in the field.

The first roundtable of the series was held in Paris and brought together high-level delegations from the United States, China, and Europe for a wide-ranging discussion on emerging technologies.

The Atlantic Council’s endeavor to evaluate the implications of modern technologies for society and politics continued in Brussels, where the event was co-hosted by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS).

Unlike previous gatherings where a majority of participants represented government institutions, the roundtable in Germany brought together business- and private-sector representatives. Together with policy experts, they discussed the emergence of new technologies, the rise of China, and the implications of a global AI race.

Two roundtables in Beijing and a third one in Shanghai brought together leaders from government, civil society, academia, and think tanks to discuss China’s role as a global citizen, the country’s use and development of artificial intelligence, and the implications of modern technologies for international relations.

Two digital roundtables with India brought together high-level experts to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and geopolitics of emerging technologies in the South Asian country. While the first focused on AI and health, the second centered on Sino-Indian relations.

The final roundtable of the Smart Partnerships Series focused on the African continent and how AI as well as other emerging technologies can be harnessed there for good.