FROM THE DESK OF Secretary Antony J. Blinken U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE -RSA conference May 06 , 2024

 

FROM THE DESK OF Secretary Antony J. Blinken U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE

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, for our democracies, for our people, for our planet.  Put another way: Security, stability, prosperity – they are no longer solely analog matters. Secretary Blinken delivers the keynote address at the RSA Conference 2024 in San Francisco, California, on May 6, 2024. (Official State Department photo by Chuck Kennedy)

The test before us is whether we can harness the power of this era of disruption and channel it into greater stability, greater prosperity, greater opportunity. President Biden is determined not just to pass this “tech test,” but to ace it. Our ability to design, to develop, to deploy technologies will determine our capacity to shape the tech future. And naturally, operating from a position of strength better positions us to set standards and advance norms around the world. But our advantage comes not just from our domestic strength. It comes from our solidarity with the majority of the world that shares our vision for a vibrant, open, and secure technological future, and from an unmatched network of allies and partners with whom we can work in common cause to pass the “tech test.” We’re committed not to “digital sovereignty” but “digital solidarity.” Yesterday, the State Department unveiled the U.S. International Cyberspace and Digital Strategy, which treats digital solidarity as our North Star. Solidarity informs our approach not only to digital technologies, but to all key foundational technologies. So what I’d like to do now is share with you five ways that we’re putting this into practice. First, we’re harnessing technology for the betterment not just of our people and our friends, but of all humanity. The United States believes emerging and foundational technologies can and should be used to drive development and prosperity, to promote respect for human rights, to solve shared global challenges. Some of our strategic rivals are working toward a very different goal. They’re using digital technologies and genomic data collection to surveil their people, to repress human rights.  Pretty much everywhere I go, I hear from government officials and citizens alike about their concerns about these dystopian uses of technology. And I also hear an abiding commitment to our affirmative vision and to the embrace of technology as a pathway to modernization and opportunity. Our job is to use diplomacy to try to grow this consensus even further – to internationalize and institutionalize our vision of “tech for good.” That’s why our second line of effort is about governance: shaping the rules of the road to ensure that foundational technologies sustain our democratic values and guard against harms. At home, we’ve released guidance that’s shaping how we – and the world – think about safe, secure, and trustworthy AI. Through the President’s AI Executive Order, we’re strengthening standards for AI and protecting Americans’ privacy. The private sector is a critical partner in this effort – which is why we’ve worked with leading AI companies on a set of voluntary commitments, like pledging to security testing before releasing new products and developing tools to help users recognize AI-generated content. We’re working with partners to set cyber norms, and we’re working to uphold them around the world. Of course, to write the rules of the road, the United States must compete across the globe in the technologies that will shape our digital and physical experience and, by extension, our geopolitical realities. And that’s the third line of our tech diplomacy. We’ve learned from the 5G experience that we cannot be complacent and let strategic competitors dominate the technologies that form the backbone of the global economy and that determine how and where information flows. That’s why we’re unleashing our diplomatic arsenal to help innovative companies from the United States and our partners fairly compete for opportunities that will help preserve and expand a secure, open, resilient tech world. And in keeping with our principle of digital solidarity, we’re committed to working with any country or company that’s committed to that same vision, not just American firms. Competing effectively abroad will depend on our fourth line of diplomatic effort: building resilient and trusted technology ecosystems. Right now, the world’s tech manufacturing infrastructure is dangerously concentrated in a few narrow geographic areas. And in the event of military conflict, 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 that includes for critical minerals, which are essential to scaling up clean energy technologies. Fifth, and finally, we’re adopting a “small yard, high fence” approach to protect the most sensitive technologies. 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. It’s a national security imperative that these technologies not aid or accelerate the military modernization of countries that seek to challenge the United States. Secretary Blinken delivers the keynote address at the RSA Conference 2024 in San Francisco, California, on May 6, 2024. (Official State Department photo by Chuck Kennedy) There’s perhaps no better example of this than the work we’ve done together in Ukraine. When Russia launched its war of aggression, it subjected the country’s infrastructure to an onslaught of cyber attacks. The United States, our international partners, and our technology community all understood the need to help the Ukrainians batten down the digital hatches. So we helped them harden their networks, migrate vital government data to the cloud, bolster the resilience of national communications and other critical infrastructure. That is digital solidarity in action. And it’s the kind of collaboration that we want to scale and apply around the world. Now, even the most far-sighted among us don’t know for sure what the tech future will look like, or exactly how emerging technologies will be used.  Working together, we can seize this extraordinary inflection point to shape a future that reflects our best values, that advances our interests, and that makes life just a little bit safer, a little bit more secure, a little bit more prosperous, a little bit more full of opportunity for all. That is fundamentally what passing the tech test means. And that’s what we want to do – together. Sincerely, Secretary Antony J. Blinken   Note to Readers This flagship email – “From the Secretary’s Desk” – features the Secretary’s remarks and speeches on important current events. Sign up to receive this email regularly.