Emerging technologies are transforming societies, economies, and geopolitics. This moment brings unparalleled promise and novel risks. In every era, technological advances buoy nations that develop and scale them—helping to save lives, win wars, foster greater prosperity, and advance the human condition. At the same time, history is filled with examples where slow-moving governments stifled innovation in ways policymakers never intended, and nefarious actors used technological advances in ways that inventors never imagined. Technology is a tool. It is not inherently good or bad. But its use can amplify human talent or degrade it, uplift societies or repress them, solve vexing challenges or exacerbate them. These effects are sometimes deliberate but often accidental.

The stakes of technological developments today are especially high. Artificial intelligence (AI) is already revolutionizing industries, from music to medicine to the military, and its impact has been likened to the invention of electricity. Yet AI is just one among many technologies that are ushering in profound change. Fields like synthetic biology, materials science, and neuroscience hold potential to vastly improve health care, environmental sustainability, economic growth, and more. We have experienced moments of major technological change before. But we have never experienced the convergence of so many technologies with the potential to change so much, so fast.

The Stanford Emerging Technology Review (SETR) is the first product of a major new Stanford technology education initiative for policymakers. Our goal is to help both the public and private sectors better understand the technologies poised to transform our world so that the United States can seize opportunities, mitigate risks, and ensure that the American innovation ecosystem continues to thrive.

Our efforts are guided by four observations: 

  1.   Policymakers need better resources to help them understand technological developments faster, continuously, and more easily.   

  2. America’s global innovation leadership matters.   

  3.  Academia’s role in American innovation is essential yet increasingly at risk.   

  4.  The view from Stanford is unique, important and needed now more than ever.

This report is intended to be a useful “one-stop shopping” primer that covers ten key emerging technology areas: artificial intelligence, biotechnology and synthetic biology, cryptography, materials science, neuroscience, nuclear technologies, robotics, semiconductors, space technologies, and sustainable energy technologies. While this is nowhere near an exhaustive list of technology research areas at Stanford, these ten fields are rapidly shaping American society today and promise to gain importance in the coming years.

Ensuring American leadership in science and technology requires all of us—academia, industry, government—to keep listening, learning, and working together. We hope the Stanford Emerging Technology Review starts meaningful and lasting conversations about how an innovation ecosystem benefits us all. The promise of emerging technology is boundless if we have the foresight to understand it and the fortitude to embrace the challenges.          
 

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

 

TEN TECHNOLOGY FOCUS AREAS

g

LEADERSHIP

Director
Herbert Lin
Fellow,
Hoover Institution
Co-Chairs
Condoleezza Rice
Director,
Hoover Institution
John Taylor
Senior Fellow,
Hoover Institution
Jennifer Widom
Dean,
School of Engineering
Amy Zegart
Senior Fellow,
Hoover Institution

Advisory Board
Hon. Steven Chu
William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Physics, and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and of Energy Science and Engineering,
Stanford University. Former Secretary of Energy
Hon. Robert Gates
Former Secretary of Defense
Hon. Susan M. Gordon
Director at CACI International
John Hennessy
Shriram Family Director,
Knight-Hennessy Scholars
Hon. Jerry McNerney
Former U.S. House of Representatives from California
Mary Meeker
General Partner at BOND
Lloyd B. Minor
Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Professorship for the Dean of the School of Medicine, Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS) and, by courtesy, of Neurobiology and of Bioengineering
Peter Scher
Vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Eric Schmidt
Cofounder of Schmidt Futures
Thomas M. Siebel
Founder of Siebel Systems Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at C3.ai

Faculty Council
Zhenan Bao
Professor in Chemical Engineering and Professor
Dan Boneh
Professor of Cryptography and Electrical Engineering
Yi Cui
Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy
Simone D’Amico
W. M. Keck Faculty Scholar of Engineering
Drew Endy
Associate Professor of Bioengineering
Siegfried Glenzer
Professor of Photon Science
Mark A. Horowitz
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Fei-Fei Li
Professor & Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute
Allison Okamura
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Kang Shen
Professor of Biology

You May Also Like

.
EnvironmentiStock-1459230107.jpg
Sustainable Energy: Powering the Future
.
Simone-D'Amico-Headshot1000px.jpg
Navigating the Challenges of Space: Balancing Progress and Preservation for Future Generations
.
Code iStock
Cryptography: A Shield for Secrets and Security
overlay image