Brad Smith - The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age

I first turned to Brad Smith for advice during the toughest time in my professional life. Two decades later, I havent stopped.

Brad joined Microsofts legal team in 1993, but we really got to know each other in the late 1990s, during the US governments antitrust suit against the company. We spent countless hours working side by side. I could see right away what a sophisticated thinker he was. I came to like Brad as a person and to trust his judgment as a professional.

Brad shaped our legal strategy during the lawsuit, and then he did something else that was at least as important: He ushered in a big cultural and strategic shift at the company. That shift is at the heart of this book.

In the early days of Microsoft, I prided myself on how little time we spent talking to people in the federal government. I would tell people, Isnt it great that we can be successful and not even have an office in DC? As I learned the hard way during the antitrust suit, this was not a wise position to take.

After the case was settled, Brad persuaded me and a lot of other people at Microsoft that we needed to take a different approach. Then he showed us how to make it happen. Brad is a lawyer, not a software developer, and although he has a great command of technology, he didnt think quite the same way as the rest of us. (I mean this as a compliment.) He saw that we needed to put more time and energy into connecting with different constituencies, including the government, our partners, and sometimes even our competitors. Brad would have made a great diplomat, which makes sense given his early interest in international relations.

It says a lot about Brad that his thinking was not limited to Microsofts own self-interest. He recognized the central importance of technology and the policies that affect it, and he concluded that staying on the sidelines wasnt just a mistake for our companyit was a mistake for the industry. Although there would be times when we would need to go it alone, there would be many othersfor example, when artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and cybersecurity are involvedwhen we all have much more to gain from working with one another.

As he argues in this book, there are also times when it is in everyones interest for the government to step in with more regulation. (Brad is self-aware enough to see the irony of a business leader asking for more government rules, rather than fewer.) To that end, he knew that Microsoft and other tech companies needed to engage more with leaders in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. My days of bragging about not having an office in DC were over.

Brads vision has never been more relevant. Governments around the world are taking a hard look at many technology companies, and at the industry as a whole. How is their technology being used? What impact is it having? What responsibilities do tech companies have? How should governments and the broader community think about these issues?

Although these are not the same questions we faced twenty years ago, the insights that Brad had back then are just as valuable today.

Take, for example, the issues raised by facial-recognition technology. This isnt yet a big topic for public debate, but it will be. What limits should software companies put on the use of their facial recognition tools? How should the industry think about this, and what kind of government regulations make sense?

Brad has led the way in anticipating these questions and creating partnerships to discuss them. The tech industry will need to come together, working with customers and governments around the world. It may not be possible to get everyone on board, but if we let things fragment so that the rules vary hugely from country to country, it wont be good for customers, the tech industry, or society.

Tools and Weapons covers an impressive range of fifteen issues, including cybersecurity, the diversity of the IT workforce, and the relationship between the United States and China. If I had to pick the most important chapter, it would be the one on privacy. The ability to collect huge amounts of data is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it empowers governments, businesses, and individuals to make better decisions. On the other hand, it raises big questions about how we can use that data while protecting peoples right to privacy.

Yet, as Brad shows, while the technology is relatively new, the questions themselves are not. People have been wrestling with one version or another of this problem for centuries. Although you may expect a chapter about data privacy to touch on the way Nazi Germany collected information on its own people, you might not expect it to also mention the War of 1812 or give you a quick history of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties.

That shows you Brads wide-ranging interests and his ability to go deep on almost any subject. But none of it comes off as a dull legal brief. Brad and his coauthor, Carol Ann Browne, are great storytellers who give you an insiders view of what it is like to hammer out these issues in real time, in conference halls and courtrooms around the world. Brad is not just sitting back and analyzing thingshe is bringing people together to find solutions.

Brad and I are in constant contact about these issues, in person and over email. I still rely on his wisdom and judgment today. Given his experience and intelligence, you could not ask for a better guide to thinking through the questions facing the technology industry now.

These issues are becoming only more important. Tools and Weapons offers a clear view of the questions raised by new technologies, and a potential path forward for tech companies and for society. Brad has written a clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in technology today.

Bill Gates

April 2019

Introduction

THE CLOUD: The Worlds Filing Cabinet

Civilization has always run on data.

Human history began when people developed the ability to speak. With the invention of language, people could share their ideas, experiences, wants, and needs.

Progress accelerated as people developed the ability to write. Ideas spread more easily and accurately not just from person to person, but from place to place.