Benefit of tech advances ‘outweigh risks’, says top US diplomat

The “positive power” of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum science, and biotech “outweighs the risks”, according to Nathaniel Fick, US ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy.

But the EU and US as well as other “developed wealthy economies” must work urgently to develop adequate global governance to “mitigate the risks,” said Mr Fick, who has been in the newly created role for nine months.

Mr Fick suggested firm policies are needed for Chinese technology and infrastructure companies because of their relationship with the Chinese government, which has “a very different view of what rights respecting use of these technologies looks like”.

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On Monday he said: “I believe it’s incumbent upon those of us in developed wealthy economies to articulate a positive, compelling affirmative vision for what these technologies can do in the lives of our citizens.”

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He said that 2½ billion people worldwide remain offline, and “are completely disconnected, or in some cases intentionally disconnected by their governments”.

Mr Fick expressed concern over the EU’s incoming AI Act, which will be debated in the European Parliament on Tuesday and voted upon on Wednesday. AI is a “transformative technology” and nations will require a “deft touch” to strike “the right degree of governance engagement without too much”.

Echoing complaints from some AI companies over the Act’s risk-based regulatory approach — which includes fines of up to 7 per cent of global turnover— Mr Fick said that “the impulses of some European political leaders will create a scenario where all of the global leading AI companies will also be American” because European entrepreneurs may be put off by Europe’s rules.

However, the AI Act will apply to US companies operating in the European Union.

Mr Fick would not comment in detail on the recent ruling against Meta by the Irish Data Protection Commission, which imposed a record $1.2 billion fine and will ban data transfers using existing legal contracts within six months. Though Meta has been granted a short High Court stay on the deadline, the ruling effectively will require the EU and US to agree details of a proposed data privacy agreement.

Mr Fick said the deadline seemed “quite an aggressive timeline to get to a [US] domestic [privacy] consensus, let alone a transatlantic consensus. But I think it’s imperative that we figure this one out.”

He added: “We need to have mutual confidence in a shared data privacy framework in order to realise the full benefits of the relationship both politically and economically.”