Across the Country, our Technology Infrastructure is Falling Behind. Could a National CTO Help?

by Anna Lynch

April 27, 2022

In today's political landscape, it's hard to find anything that Democrats and Republicans can agree on. One of the few things, it seems, that they can is that our infrastructure is in desparate need of an upgrade. Normally when politicians talk infrastructure, they mean bridges, dams, pipes, and other physical infrastructure. Maybe they mean broadband too. While addressing these concerns is important, of equal importance is addressing our country's technology infrastructure. The world's battlefields are moving to cyberspace, both for international wars and for ordinary criminals. The WannaCry Attack, believed to be politically motivated, was responsible for billions of dollars in damage, and the economically motivated Colonial Pipeline hack was responsible for almost 30 million barrels of delayed gasoline transport. These two attacks alone were responsible for incredible harm, and these are only examples. These attacks are only going to get worse as time goes on, our attackers grow more powerful, and our defenses become more outdated. In response to these growing concerns, the White House has taken some steps to address vulnerabilities. That said, one step Biden hasn't taken has been appointing a Chief Technology Officer of the United States. Despite the office's creation by Obama, the chair has been sitting empty since the start of the current administration. Appointing a Chief Technology Officer will open the door to development of our country's trailing technology infrastructure, and will save billions of dollars down the line.

What Does a National CTO Do?

The Chief Technology Officer of the United States is a high-ranking position with a lot of responsibilities, but the most important is providing technological direction to the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The Office of Science and Technology, or OSTP for short, is an executive agency tasked with advising the president on all matter of topics relating to science, technology, and space. The OSTP is chaired by its Director, at time of writing, Alondra Nelson. However, a National CTO offers crucial technical advice to the OSTP, its director, and the President. A CTO bridges the gap between the government and private sector technology. Overall, the CTO's responsibilities primarily regard communication. That said, the CTO would not be a powerless position. Being the government's primary contact with tech companies, big and small, would be a very powerful position indeed. This power can and should be harnessed on the behalf of the American people, in order to produce more secure technology, including within the government.

A CTO Will Be Financially Advantageous

The act of appointing a person to the position of CTO itself will not be very costly. It will require one extra salary to be paid, which, in the grand scheme of government, is not all that much. The true cost of a CTO would come in the decisions that would be made with the counsel of the CTO. Replacing aging information systems running on Fortran, COBOL, and Windows 95 will be expensive. That said, even this cost is a dramatic saving on the cost which we would face as a nation if we did not make these necessary replacements. Cyberattacks destroy and steal billions of dollars in information each year, and the best way to defend against them is to keep infrastructure up to date. Beyond upgrading infrastructure, the CTO would advise other decisions with considerable cost. Agreements which the CTO brokers between the Government and tech companies, for example, may cost the Federal Government enormous sums of money. If, however, these decisions are made wisely, we can shape the future of technology towards a positive direction that benefits the whole of America, saving not just monetary cost, but the cost of lost joy, life, and liberty that comes with abuses from unregulated big tech companies like Google and Facebook.

A CTO Will Be Politically Popular

Politics is, first and foremost, a money game. After it's a money game, it's a popularity contest. One great way to win that popularity contest is to establish a CTO. Americans are in agreement that we need greater tech investment, and one way to provide the impression that work is being made on that front is through a high-profile appointment. When, in the upcoming midterms, and in 2024, Republicans ask if Democrats have delivered on their promises of infrastructure investment, Democrats will be able to point to clear steps in that direction, while blaming inaction from Congress on Republican obstruction. When both Congress and the White House are doing nothing, however, their position looks increasingly weak. By establishing a CTO within the White House, Democrats will be able to defend against allegations of inaction.

Who Should Be Our National CTO?

One major hurdle in appointing a Chief Technology Officer of the United States is finding an eligible candidate. For the lofty position, someone would need to be chosen who has a background in technology decision-making, promoting infrastructure development, and who has worked in major technology businesses. The Officer must not, however, be too connected to any particular technology company or major technology in general, or that could risk creating a conflict of interest. One big problem with choosing a CTO is that most of the appropriate candidates have significant holdings in one or more technology companies which would pose an ethics violation if they were to hold high-ranking public office. In order to choose someone who is a good fit, we should look inside the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Initially, I looked at Nicole Wong, a prominent lawyer who has worked within both big tech firms and the government. Most notably, she was previously Deputy CTO. Unfortunately, a good chunk of her work has been in handling censorship arbitration for Google and Twitter. While this work is important, it would be politically unpopular to appoint somebody who is so tied to big tech and its most controversial practices. I felt like it was more appropriate to appoint Ryan Panchadsaram, another Deputy CTO. Unlike Wong, Panchadsaram's efforts have been mostly uncontroversial moves to update and secure technology, especially in healthcare. He has led transformative initiatives with this goal, and will no doubt continue to do so at an even greater scale. Him having previously held public office would set him up nicely, as he has experience with the environment and would be less likely to have holdings that raise ethics concerns. Of course, there are hundreds of other qualified candidates who would each be sucessful in their own right. It's not important exactly who becomes CTO, as long as they can get the job done right.

The Clock Is Ticking

Hopefully, you're now convinced of the need for a CTO. It's politically popular, financially beneficial, and will help protect us from technological threats, both from authoritarian tech companies and from hackers and viruses. A CTO will demonstrate the Administration's- and America's- commitment to developing technological infrastructure like nothing we have yet scene. Time, however, is of the essence. Appointing a CTO requires congressional approval, and while an ideal CTO pick would receive wide bipartisan appeal, almost nothing sees such a treatment in our current political scene. If Republicans win the Senate in the upcoming Midterms, which it seems increasingly likel that they will, it will be very hard to appoint even the most incontroversial candidate to the least powerful office. With that in mind, the Biden Administration must act quickly to fill this hole, defuse the bomb of our aging digital infrastructure, and give itself ammo in the upcoming election. America needs a National CTO today. Will the Administration rise to the occasion?

This post was inspired by a column in Wired by Steven Levy. I encourage that you read it given how much better it is than this little blog post.

Sources:

BBC News. "Cyber-attack: US and UK blame North Korea for WannaCry." BBC.com, BBC, 2017.

Council, Jared. "Scale AI Hires Former U.S. CTO Michael Kratsios as Head of Strategy." The Wall Street Journal, News Corp, 2021.

Picture Alliance for DLD. "DLD16 Conference Day 3." Flickr, 2016. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA