Technology Empowerment: Security Challenges
“Technology empowerment” means that innovation is increasingly accessible to ordinary people of limited means. As powerful technologies become more affordable and accessible, and as people are increasingly connected around the world, ordinary people are empowered to participate in the process of innovation and share the fruits of collaborative innovation. This annotated briefing describes technology empowerment and focuses on how empowerment may create challenges to U.S. national security. U.S. defense research as a share of global innovation has dwindled in recent years. With technology empowerment, the role of U.S. defense research is likely to shrink even further while technology empowerment will continue to increase the speed of innovation. To avoid falling too far behind potential technology threats to U.S. national security, U.S. national security institutions will need to adopt many of the tools of technology empowerment.