Questions for economic developers on cybersecurity and AI

The World Economic Forum (WEF) identified cybersecurity breaches along with environmental degradation caused by human-induced climate change, as the top two risks to the global economy over the next 10 years, according to the 2018 Global Risks Report, the Forum’s annual survey of nearly 1,000 experts from across the planet.  With evidence mounting of Russian hacking of the U.S. elections in 2016, increasingly common cyberattacks on the mega databanks of several of the country’s largest corporations, and computer viruses growing more serious in their potential disruption, the WEF concerns seem justified.

Are state economic development policies recognizing the threat? Just since November, governors in Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, South Dakota, and Virginia have announced new initiatives or made proposals related to cybersecurity – but mostly as an economic opportunity rather than defensive positioning to protect their existing manufacturers, businesses, civic institutions and citizens.   

As the World Economic Forum Global Risk Report points out, international handling of the internet and artificial intelligence bears all the hallmarks of the traditional concept of a tragedy of the commons. The seeming preponderance of letting someone else worry about cybersecurity that invisibly accompanies each pronouncement of new private and regional investments in the next cohort or portfolio of ICT startups -emphasizes the Forum’s point. 

Will the situation get worse before it gets better? The WEF states: “without a robust and enforceable regulatory framework, there is a risk that humans will in effect be crowded out from the internet by the proliferation of AI.” Here in the U.S., the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is focusing its entire April 18, 2018 “Innovation Policy and the Economy” conference on the economic impacts and policy implications of ICT, precision health, and artificial intelligence. 

With leading economists nationally and internationally considering our preparedness for the technological innovation underway, should regional innovation strategies give greater consideration to the resilience of their existing internet, electrical infrastructures and ICT-dependent sectors as opportunities to secure and grow economic opportunity than perhaps the next ad-optimizing app?