Technology has the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life for the world’s populations, but there are no guarantees it will. Concerns remain about everything from how the growing digital divide risks leaving large swathes of society—and the world—behind, to questions about the security of data and its potential weaponization. And, of course, there is the ongoing debate around how technology and information platforms can be used to undermine democratic processes, including elections.
To address these concerns, a panel of experts assembled by the United Nations recently called for “multistakeholder-ism” that would convene governments, members of civil society, academics, technology experts and the private sector in an attempt to develop norms and standards around these technologies. Even they could not agree on what this structure might specifically look like, though, underscoring how difficult it will be to ensure that technology is harnessed for everyone’s benefit.
The risks are particularly acute under authoritarian regimes, which are more interested in utilizing new technologies to strengthen their grip on power than in having their hands tied by whatever multistakeholder vision ultimately emerges. There are also the questions raised by technological advances in weaponry—particularly the ethical questions and legal concerns surrounding autonomous weapons that remove humans from the decision-making chain.
Despite the challenges they pose to governance and society, technological innovations will continue to emerge. In the absence of any global agreement, there is still an opportunity for governments to seize on the benefits these advances might bring, while encouraging their ethical and democratic use.
WPR has covered technology and its role in global affairs in detail and continues to examine key questions about what will happen next. How will the spread of drone technology and the advent of artificial intelligence affect the global balance of power? What steps will governments take to prevent digital attacks on future elections? How will automation change the future of employment? Below are some of the highlights of WPR’s coverage.
Our Most Recent Coverage
Internet Governance
Nations are struggling in their effort to strike a balance between digital freedom and protecting people from the dangers the internet and information technology can unleash—from hate speech to attacks on privacy. Authoritarian countries, having recognized how technology can be used to organize opposition, are now increasingly deploying digital blockades at politically fraught moments. Even European countries, in their efforts to regulate content, risk reducing free and open access to information.
Why Ukraine’s efforts to prevent digital warfare may have gone too far, in Ukraine’s Failed Attempt to Stop Russian Interference Is Trampling Digital Rights
How the global internet might be increasingly transformed into isolated domestic networks, in With New Laws to Filter Online Content, Will the Internet Remain Free and Open?
Drones
Like much technology, drones bring much promise, including the ability to deliver medicines and other supplies to remote locations. But they are primarily associated with warfare and especially the United States’ expanded and controversial use of drones over the past decade in its shadow wars against terrorists and insurgents in the Middle East and Africa. Washington’s example may have sparked a global arms race, at a time when drones are increasingly accessible to unsavory groups, making them a growing risk to domestic security.
On the development of China’s drone technology and Beijing’s efforts to export it, in The Zhuzhai Airshow Confirms China’s Emergence as a Defense Industrial Power
Why overstating the risk of drones may be more dangerous than the drones, themselves, in Are Drones the ‘Perfect Assassination Weapon,’ or an Overblown Threat?
Autonomous Weapons and “Killer Robots”
The emergence of technologies enabling weapon systems to act autonomously, removing humans from the decision-making chain, has raised concerns over the ethical, legal and practical challenges of machines making potentially lethal decisions. For now, the threat remains a hypothetical one, but efforts to address it already face challenges.
Why the gathering momentum to prohibit autonomous weapons might not be enough, in Can Civil Society Succeed in Its Quest to Ban ‘Killer Robots’?
Why the emergence of autonomous weapons might only be a question of time, in Crossing the Rubicon: The Inevitable Emergence of Military Robots
Artificial Intelligence
AI is not a single technology, but a range of applications, including facial recognition and natural language processing. Though the true advent of AI remains on the horizon, the race is already on among the great powers to take the lead in developing its potential, with implications for the global balance of power.
Why competition with China should not be an excuse for U.S. developers to dodge important ethical questions around AI development, in Why the U.S. Needs a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy
How the U.S. military might be able to recruit top tech talent, in To Retain Its Technological Edge, the Pentagon Must Transform Its Culture
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