Misaligned Priorities

We have several sets of broadband priorities at odds with each other in the country. The federal government is on a big push to move all transactions with the government to digital. The government is also clearly supporting an AI revolution where AI is supposed to revolutionize the way we work and live. According to federal government rhetoric, we are a little bit ahead of the Chinese in terms of AI development, and politicians seem to support the idea of doing whatever is needed to make sure that the U.S. wins the AI race. At the same time that we are prioritizing AI and moving everything online, we seem to be deprioritizing broadband. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration cut the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program funding in half to save money, at the expense of building new networks that would provide solid infrastructure for the next fifty years. The Administration outright killed the Digital Equity Act, which had the goal of getting computers into people’s hands and training them how to use them. These goals are clearly at odds with each other.