"I am runnning because
we need better tech policy"
Cyril Focht
TN House representative for district 6
Tech Policy
In the ever-evolving realm of technology, we must address key concerns. Artificial intelligence (AI) holds tremendous power, but without accountability, its decisions can go unchecked. Social media platforms have revolutionized communication but lack consistent content moderation and can harm mental health. Data privacy is paramount, as companies collect and utilize our information without transparency. The right to repair is a fundamental freedom, extending to personal devices and essential equipment. Lastly, bridging the digital divide through rural broadband is imperative, ensuring equal access to economic resources and treating all Americans as equals in the digital age. Together, we can navigate these tech policy challenges while fostering innovation and safeguarding individual rights.
ArtificialIntelligence
There’s a lot of fear about artificial intelligence, and for good reason, it’s astoundingly powerful and developing faster than anyone can keep up with. Even worse, it’s hard to be informed about what parts we should even be scared of, since a lot of what makes it into the news is just downright science fiction. What AI comes down to is a method of automating decision-making: a chess-playing program makes decisions about what moves to play in a game, a spam filter makes decisions about what emails you probably don’t care to read, and a self-driving car makes decisions about how to move a car on a roadway. When a person makes decisions they should be held responsible for making bad decisions, but most present danger of AI is that no one is made accountable for its decisions and those decisions are usually given no oversight.
Social Media
There’s a reason social media is as popular as it is. Being able to easily keep up with loved ones no matter where they live and sharing knowledge with strangers across the world brings a lot of enrichment to our lives. But social media platforms have also damaged the way we have conversations with each other, there aren’t any laws that require them to uphold any consistent standards in their content moderation, and they are known to cause severe mental health damage to children using them, from cyberbullying to body image issues.
Data Privacy
When we go out into town and shop for groceries at the local supermarket, we don’t expect to have our every move recorded and stored in a file with data on exactly what we’ve done in the store every time we walk in, and yet that’s exactly what happens on every website we visit on the internet. Internet companies record as much data about every one of their users as they’re able to collect, and there is no transparency about how that data is being used or who has access to that data. As American citizens, we have a right to privacy, and that should include privacy from data collection.
Artificial Intelligence
There’s a lot of fear about artificial intelligence, and for good reason, it’s astoundingly powerful and developing faster than anyone can keep up with. Even worse, it’s hard to be informed about what parts we should even be scared of, since a lot of what makes it into the news is just downright science fiction. What AI comes down to is a method of automating decision-making: a chess-playing program makes decisions about what moves to play in a game, a spam filter makes decisions about what emails you probably don’t care to read, and a self-driving car makes decisions about how to move a car on a roadway. When a person makes decisions they should be held responsible for making bad decisions, but most present danger of AI is that no one is made accountable for its decisions and those decisions are usually given no oversight.
Social Media
There’s a reason social media is as popular as it is. Being able to easily keep up with loved ones no matter where they live and sharing knowledge with strangers across the world brings a lot of enrichment to our lives. But social media platforms have also damaged the way we have conversations with each other, there aren’t any laws that require them to uphold any consistent standards in their content moderation, and they are known to cause severe mental health damage to children using them, from cyberbullying to body image issues.
Data Privacy
When we go out into town and shop for groceries at the local supermarket, we don’t expect to have our every move recorded and stored in a file with data on exactly what we’ve done in the store every time we walk in, and yet that’s exactly what happens on every website we visit on the internet. Internet companies record as much data about every one of their users as they’re able to collect, and there is no transparency about how that data is being used or who has access to that data. As American citizens, we have a right to privacy, and that should include privacy from data collection.
Right toRepair
Rural Broadband
The internet has come a long way since it entered the home in the 90s, and it’s no longer a luxury service. In that time it’s become the backbone of modern commerce, and in our current economy a lack of access to the internet means a lack of access to economic resources. The digital divide is a factor in the poverty rates of rural areas, and we cannot continue to treat rural americans as second class citizens.