It’s no secret that the government and Big Tech mix like oil and water (when it’s time for a lawsuit, their relationship more similarly resembles Pepsi and Mentos). But a newly proposed National Cloud could alter the dynamics of this relationship, creating a stronger union between tech firms and Congress.
The National Cloud would allow for the storage of Artificial Intelligence research conducted by researchers, computer scientists, academics, and employees at small tech companies throughout the country. Furthermore, researchers will have access to computational power through this government-funded Cloud as well as large government datasets. The National Cloud is part of a larger effort to “study and provide an implementation pathway to create world-class computational resources and robust government datasets for researchers across the country.” With the pressure of staying technologically relevant in today’s atmosphere, the U.S. wants to keep ahold of its crown (as fears of losing it to China surface).
The U.S. is far from the only country interested in a National Cloud. Italy has recently requested bids from companies to build a national cloud hub, a project totaling 900 million euros. While this project’s purpose is to make the countries “less dependent on large overseas tech companies for cloud services,” the premise of the Italian national cloud is similar. Other countries like China have also started to migrate large tech giants to government cloud computing services. India has also looked into building a national cloud, named Meghraj, which “ensures optimum utilization of the infrastructure and speed up the development and deployment of eGov applications.” While countries have different purposes for their national cloud, they all aim to serve the government and advance the country’s technological presence.
The National Cloud seems great at first glance; the democratization of AI can allow for greater domestic innovations. However, critics have remarked that Big Tech is eager to back the National Cloud to push their own agenda and make profits from offering their own commercial cloud computing services to house the National Cloud. Whether the government employs Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, or some other cloud computing service, commercial computing systems will be necessary for this project. A white paper released by Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence details that “both public computing infrastructure and services from commercial cloud providers,” will significantly boost the power in favor of companies that help host the National Cloud.
Another problem with the National Cloud is the slew of privacy problems, which according to critics, the government has not given much thought to. While the Privacy Act of 1974 does not permit the pooling of data under the government, it does offer exemptions for statistical research. Furthermore, creating the National Cloud forces the government to work with the same Big Tech companies that the Biden administration has pledged to buckle down on through antitrust regulation. With increasing tensions between Congress and tech firms, it’ll be interesting to see a potential partnership between them.
The idea of a National Cloud is still in its early stages, so it’s hard to tell what kind of impacts it will have. But, it seems like this government-funded cloud service might serve as a conflict of interest while also allowing Big Tech to profit. Additionally, without resolving the obvious issues first, the National Cloud can pose serious threats to Washington’s bounty on tech. However, while the National Cloud seems to help Big Tech profit from the government, the idea still has its merits. This Cloud would streamline government funding and data into the hands of researchers who have spent years studying and working with intelligent automata. However, if/when this plan goes into effect, it will certainly be interesting to see which entity wears the pants in America’s hottest budding relationship.
Technically Speaking is an Opinion culture column used to discuss topics relating to technology, such as pop culture, trends, social media, or other relevant subject matter.
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