342: Betsy Cooper - The Policy Gap: Navigating AI, Risk and Regulation

In this episode, Steve is in conversation with Betsy Cooper, director of the Aspen Policy Academy at the Aspen Institute. As an expert in cyber and tech policy, Betsy shares her thoughts on how policymakers can keep pace with the rapid developments in AI and quantum technology, building a futureproof compliance strategy, and AI risks. Steve and Betsy also discuss policymaking in a volatile world, how businesses can protect their image after a breach, and what can be done to get governments to care about online scams.

Key Takeaways:

1. Legislative experiments at the local and regional levels will be key for crafting strong, sensible, tech policy on the national level.
2. Tabletop exercises are one of the best tools for preparing the C-suite for breaches and attacks.
3. People must start to speak up against the growing prevalence of having to trade privacy for access to the most basic online tools and sites.

Tune in to hear more about:

1. Creating a “future-proof” compliance strategy (7:11)
2. Protecting your brand following a breach, data theft, or disinformation campaigns (13:35)
3. Trading access for personal information (22:31)

Standout Quotes:

1. “I do think that it would be preferable to have one coherent framework. I think industry would benefit from that if we did have that sort of framework. But also, I'm not sure that we're at the level of sophistication today that we'd be able to write the best framework because we haven't experimented enough. So I actually think that having the state and local sort of sandboxes leading to future federal policy is not a bad approach.” - Betsy Cooper
2. “It's a very difficult thing to try to prove a negative, and that's why disinformation can be so powerful. But it's also a very fast-moving space, so the faster you can get in there with your counter-narrative, the more likely you are to be successful.” - Betsy Cooper
3. “I'm the mother of a five-year-old, and in order to get my five-year-old's baseball schedule, I have to download an app on my phone. There is no web access for the app that has the baseball schedule. So in order to get that baseball schedule, I have to sign away a whole bunch of privacy just to get my kid to a sports game. I think that shouldn't be allowed.” - Betsy Cooper

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