4 Emerging Technology Lessons from UNGA 2023
Global policy expert commentary
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For the uninitiated, New York City in September is a mad house. Each year, diplomats and dignitaries converge on a small island of international territory inside the city for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). In parallel, a vast array of events is organized by interested groups, NGOs, individuals, and more to bring experts together and discuss important issues. This year, I was fortunate enough to attend four such events on a wide range of topics. Below are the 4 lessons I learned from my four UNGA events in 2023.
- Gaps in Space Policy: That there are gaps between established space policies and the current state of the cislunar economy is not news, but what was news to me is how disconnected from the current state of space policy those working in the space domain are. I attended a space-focused event where I heard presentations on proposed space technology ideas that were years behind the current state of space policy and technology.
Lesson: There is a lot of work to be done to fully understand space norms, policies, and culture even among innovators.
- Focus on Municipalities: At the Strong Cities Summit, I heard presentations from municipal leaders from around the world who are using data to better understand their citizens. While this might have a Big Brother vibe, it is equivalent to marketing research done by large companies. There was an interesting focus on combatting far right extremism, not only in the US, but around the world. The central question was how to implement technology to solve these challenges.
Lesson: There is significant interest in bringing technology solutions into municipalities to solve challenges, but an equally large demand to protect citizens’ privacy.
- Misdirection: At a mis-, dis-, and malinformation (MDM) event, I heard experts talk about challenges in combatting MDM. Most of the presentations, with some notable exceptions, focused on talking about, and in some cases admiring, the problem. The conversation suffered from a lack of actionable outcomes, but there were a few voices in the room who had technology-enabled ideas.
Lesson: A large volume of problem admirers are taking up a lot of time and space in the MDM conversation. There are ways to chip away at the problem, but many seem overwhelmed by the magnitude of the issue. There is room to take small steps toward implementing solutions, even if they are not the 100% solution and there are ways to bring AI into this conversation to achieve these goals.
- Bad Guy Dollars: My final event of the week was held by an organization that focuses on counterterrorist finance. On the positive side, I had the opportunity to discuss how AI could help in building profiles of suspicious financial activity that could be game changing for the finance counterterrorist offense. On the negative side, there seemed to be a lot of fear over whether terrorists would use AI. I say negative because no one could say exactly what outcome terrorists might use AI for, or what data they might want, but it was the kind of question that makes people pay attention.
Lesson: Finance, particularly the detection of nefarious financial activity, is an excellent use case for AI implementation. The ability to augment human experts in this space is immense. Whether terrorists would try to use AI is a question that can be studied but the use of AI to detect terrorist finance is a solution for today.
Final Words: The struggle to implement emerging technologies for specific use cases continues. Many people see amazing technology and want to get in the game but are unsure of how to begin. That is a tough question, and after years of working in national security, I could not be more sympathetic. However, there are clear use cases that align with existing policies, that could be delivered quickly and shorten the path to value by months. In the case of terrorist finance, that might mean lives saved. A strong marriage between policy and technical is more important than ever. The combination of both is how organizations will see sustained power law value in the short and long term.