Rep. Ro Khanna: Jobs Will Be the Focus of White House A.I. Summit
*By Alisha Haridisani*
Dozens of Silicon Valley executives are scheduled to descend on the White House for a summit meeting Thursday to discuss how artificial intelligence can be used to strengthen the economy.
“I think the big question is ‘what are the new jobs going to look like?’” said Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California’s tech-heavy 17th district.
The summit, organized by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, will provide a forum for tech leaders and lawmakers to discuss how manufacturing, transportation, and healthcare can integrate A.I. without losing too many jobs and, hopefully, creating new ones.
A.I. is expected to automate at least 13 million jobs in the United States, according to a [paper](https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/2e2f4eea-en.pdf?expires=1525898765&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=0EC91AF21400A0A43F18E3466CB1449A) published by the international Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) earlier this year. The paper also predicted that the effect on America's workforce may be greater than the disruption caused by automation of the auto industry in the 1950s, which resulted in large job losses in some local economies.
“You’re not just going to solve that issue by tax cuts or corporate giveaways,” said Khanna. “You really need to prepare a workforce for the jobs of the future."
Michael Kratsios, the White House's deputy chief technology officer, recently [told The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/05/08/white-house-will-host-amazon-facebook-ford-and-other-major-companies-for-summit-on-ai/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.610bec66f6d7) the potential applications for A.I., robots and machine learning touched nearly every industry.
“Whether you’re a farmer in Iowa, an energy producer in Texas, a drug manufacturer in Boston, you are going to be using these techniques to drive your business going forward,” Kratsios was quoted by The Post.
Khanna said the potential far-reaching impact of new technology required the administration to come up with a detailed plan for preparing American workers. "I thought the president, who made his reputation on ‘The Apprentice,’ would announce a lot of apprenticeship and tech programs," he said.
Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and IBM are reportedly among the companies that will attend the meeting at the White House with academics and lawmakers.
Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a private-public fund backed by Bill Gates, is planning to invest up to $15 billion in clean technology initiatives across the U.S., UK, and European Union. It will target four key areas and help fund large projects that otherwise would not be financially possible. Bobby Hollis, Director of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
An economic development agency, the Northwest Arkansas Council, is looking to draw technology professionals to their region of the Southern state with incentives like $10,000 worth of Bitcoin and a new bicycle. Nelson Peacock, president and CEO of the private nonprofit made up of companies like Walmart and Tyson Foods, joined Cheddar to talk about the program to further power his local economy. "By offering the payment in Bitcoin, we're looking to identify those people with interest and expertise in the underlying technologies, the blockchain technologies," he said.
After months of investors turning to crypto as a hedge against inflation, instead of the traditional hedge of gold, one crypto exchange is working with a token creator to launch a digital coin backed by a physical asset. GCOIN gives customers a digital title of ownership to 99.99% pure physical gold which is stored in a secured vault. Brent de Jong, GCoin's founder and Kristin Boggiano, Co-Founder and President of CrossTower, a cryptocurrency exchange, join Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the GCOIN rollout, customer interest, why crypto is used as an inflation hedge, and more.
Retail platform operator and delivery company, Foxtrot,
raised $100 million in a Series C round led by D1 Capital Partners. Foxtrot bills itself as the modern convenience store that combines what it calls in-store curated discovery with 30-minute delivery and 5-minute pickup. Since launching first as a digital-only delivery service, the company has since grown into a popular local retailer, opening 16 brick and mortar locations across Chicago, Dallas, and Washington, DC. Foxtrot co-founder and CEO Michael LaVitola joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The January 6 committee has subpoenaed four tech giants for more information on what they did and didn't do leading up to last year's deadly Capitol insurrection. Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit were asked to assist the investigation in August, but the committee says their responses have been 'inadequate.' Craig Timberg, a national technology reporter at the Washington Post, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more details about the subpoenas, why this is happening now, and how it might impact social media companies moving forward.
