JD Vance Says It's Time For Government And Tech Interests To Align
While the Trump Administration has yet to put its AI policy into writing, Vice President JD Vance gave us an early look in a speech this week. Vance appeared at the American Dynamism Summit, an Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)-sponsored event highlighting tech and government in Washington, D.C.
'Now, in our administration, is the time to align our work interests with those of all of you,' Vance said to a room of Silicon Valley execs and investors. 'It's time to align the interests of our technology firms with the interests of the United States of America writ large.'
Vance, who formerly worked in Silicon Valley venture capital, said he sees himself as a sort of connection between the techno-optimists—the industry veterans who want to use technology to move society forward—and populists—ordinary people who fear that technology will result in job loss and alienation from society. Innovation, he said, has traditionally enhanced the value of American labor—ATMs improved bank tellers' jobs, for example. The U.S. should 'seek to dominate' productive new technologies like AI.
Vance's speech didn't get into specifics on AI or tech policy that may be coming, but reaffirmed the basic gist the administration has been sharing: Regulatory controls are too tight.
'I think a lot of the tech optimists, they see overregulation. They see stifling innovation,' Vance said. 'I mean, you guys are builders. They are builders. And while they may sympathize with those who lost a job, they're much more frustrated that the government won't allow them to build the jobs of the future. …They see a government that makes their lives harder and they mistrust anyone who looks to that government for aid.'
AI and technology were examples Vance gave of American innovation—something he said is pushing toward 'America's great industrial comeback.' There wasn't much more in the way of what the administration specifically hopes to accomplish through AI, or any mention of the privacy, security and copyright issues that are often discussed in tandem with generative AI.
But newly enacted Trump Administration policies, like tariffs, are already impacting companies. I talked to John Mitchell, president and CEO of IPC, the global electronics industry group, about some of the challenges they are facing today. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.
Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto via Getty Images
This week, Google made its biggest deal ever: The $32 billion all-cash acquisition of cloud security platform Wiz. Google says that Wiz will improve Google Cloud security with better automation, lower costs, and constantly updating to protect against new threats. Despite its new ownership, Google said Wiz will continue to work and be available to customers who use other cloud providers, including AWS, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud. Wiz, which was founded in Israel in 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Ami Luttwak and Roy Reznik, saw lightning speed growth with their easy-to-use cloud security platform. Forbes profiled Wiz in 2023 after its CEO Rappaport and the other founders had reached billionaire status.
This acquisition shows that cloud security and digital resilience are two very important components as Google looks to build toward the future, writes Forbes senior contributor Tony Bradley. Analysts in the space told Bradley the deal has a lot to do with Google taking advantage of companies hoping to consolidate their tech vendors. The sheer number of options can seem daunting, but it's easy to go with one that is owned by a vendor they already use and trust. Bugcrowd CISO Trey Ford told Bradley that the deal will help Wiz's product improve, giving their models more visibility and training data. The deal may foreshadow something else: More big acquisitions in this space as Amazon and Microsoft try to catch up.
Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Google's Gemini AI platform wants to get to know you better. The platform is giving users the option of handing over their search history to the AI bot so it can learn more about you as a user and what you are interested in, writes Forbes senior contributor Paul Monckton. If you're looking for a restaurant, Gemini with more knowledge of you could consider your previous food-related searches. Monckton writes that this more customized AI search will eventually expand to other Google apps and services, with YouTube and Google Photos first.
Google is also adding more health-related information to its AI Overviews that appear in search results, the company announced this week. In a blog post from Google Chief Health Officer Karen DeSalvo, she writes they've improved AI Overviews on many of these topics, providing more knowledge panels on common health topics that help people connect with sources across the web. There's also a new AI-powered feature on mobile devices called 'What People Suggest,' which puts together different perspectives from online discussions—like what others say about exercising with arthritis.
Jack Dorsey in 2021.
Jack Dorsey's new AI agent is taking flight. In January, the Twitter founder's newest company Block released its Goose AI assistant. Goose is an open source AI agent that can connect LLMs to a variety of actions, and is seeing widespread adoption, writes Forbes contributor Tor Constantino. 'We've been blown away by the engagement from the open-source community,' Block's head of open source Manik Surtani wrote in an email to Constantino. Goose, which takes advantage of Anthropic's Model Context Protocol to connect AI assistants, has seen widespread use in coding. It is also being used internally at Block for tasks including data analysis and content asset management, Brad Axen, Block's tech lead for AI and data platform, told Constantino.
IPC President and CEO John Mitchell.
Electronics of all kinds, from wires to chips to cables to computers, have been at the heart of the global economy for about the last century. The IPC is the global association for the electronics industry. It currently has more than 3,000 members and works with companies and governments to develop and enhance technology manufacturing, management and education across the globe. This week, IPC had its 25th annual conference, known as the APEX Expo, in Anaheim, California.
I talked to IPC President and CEO John Mitchell about the organization and how it's been working through complex issues of today, including tariffs, supply chains and reshoring manufacturing. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity. A longer version is available here.
What are some of the bigger issues right now for the electronics industry?
Mitchell: Having a resilient and trusted global supply chain is top of everyone's mind everywhere along all those sub-sectors I just mentioned. Coming out of Covid, everyone became very keenly aware of the impacts, the fragility of the electronic supply chain, and how critical it is to everything. Those same types of issues are coming up again today.
There's no one country that can build all of any system. We depend on a global supply chain. Each different country might bring different strengths to the electronics ecosystem. Global cooperation is really necessary. Some of the issues today—trade and tariffs and things like that—those are on the top of the industry's mind because they're not just affecting the electronics industry. They're impacting every industry.
The U.S. is on the precipice of enacting a lot of new tariffs. What has IPC been doing to work with members in all countries to deal with them?
[There are] two challenges with tariffs for the industry. In Trump 1.0—tariffs were part of that as well—a lot of the small and medium sized companies in the U.S. struggled because of the tariffs. If you can only buy the goods from a certain place, because it's only available in Asia based on the changes that have happened over the last couple of decades and you're a small or medium sized company, suddenly you're paying 10%, 20%, 30% more for that part. You have to either pass those costs on, which may be impossible because you've already signed contracts before these tariffs came about. Or you shutter. Or you have to eat that and you become less profitable. It's a real challenge for small companies.
Larger companies have other options because they're broader, they have more connections, they're in different locations.
[In Trump's first term,] China had a lot of capacity, and the way you strengthen the supply chain is diversifying. With tariffs, we actually did see a lot of companies move to additional countries, and so that diversified the supply chain. There is some positive to it. I think there are other ways to do that without putting the burden and driving electronics manufacturing out of this country.
The other challenge with tariffs is as they come out, they're not actually benefiting the industry directly. I would be much more excited about tariffs if we could sit there and say: For all of the electronics tariffs that the U.S. government collects, those funds are going to go to the electronics industry in the U.S. to raise it up and to build those capabilities. I haven't seen that yet. All I see is it going to government, and that doesn't really build an industry. It actually harms this industry because now their costs went up with no benefit.
We did a sentiment survey. More than 46% of the existing electronics industry views tariffs very negatively. And almost 20% are looking to move the existing industry in the U.S. offshore. It's actually having the opposite effect. We were surprised. That's why we're saying: Because of the raising of manufacturing costs, especially for small manufacturers, it could be pushing production offshore and thereby actually weakening America's electronics industrial base. If you do that, that's weakening every industrial base.
What are things that executives don't know about your industry, but should?
One of the things that they don't think about often enough is that while they're very much worried and focused on their end product, they need to have an electronic strategy themselves. I have yet to come up with an industry that isn't impacted by electronics significantly. People are like, 'Oh, I have an AI strategy.' Well, guess what? That's an electronic strategy. 'I have an internet strategy.' That's an electronic strategy. It all comes back to that. They should get engaged with IPC to better understand what's impacting their innovation in the future, because without an electronic strategy, they're going to struggle having to continue the accelerated pace of innovation.
In order to get Elon Musk's xAI's Colossus data center running, Forbes' Cyrus Farivar reports the company brought in mobile natural gas turbines—a dirty solution that was previously seen as a last resort during emergencies—without any permits.
300: Megawatts of power that xAI is hoping to have for its data center: 150 MW from the local grid and 150 MW from 15 turbines, enough to power nearly 100,000 homes
50%: Decreased efficiency for mobile natural gas turbines, compared to natural gas stationary power plants
'A quick and dirty approach that's very wasteful, financially and environmentally': Rice University professor of civil and environmental engineering Daniel Cohan told Forbes
Not only does AI change the way we work, it also changes how people think about their work. Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University looked at the way employees' thought processes are shifting.
In order to make sophisticated systems work, data is a necessity. But what is high quality data, and how can you make sure that yours meets that standard?
A new company is teaming up with Sam Altman's World ID, which does retinal scans to prove users' identity. What business is this company in?
A. Enterprise computer security
B. Health insurance
C. Video games
D. Gambling
See if you got the answer right here.
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