Let’s Connect The World To Change The World!

Rural Futures Institute Author

04/04/2018 Added

19 Plays

Description

The Rural Futures Institute at the University of Nebraska is proud to host Shelley McKinley, General Manager of Technology and Corporate Responsibility at Microsoft. During her public presentation, "Let's Connect The World To Change The World," Shelley will share how her company is connecting people, so everyone has access to the opportunities that technology provides. She will deep dive into the use of technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), to create environmental sustainability, connect 1 billion people around the world with disabilities and prepare the workforce of the future.

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[00:00:03.848]First of I want to say we appreciate you all coming.
[00:00:06.510]I think this is gonna be a rich and robust discussion
[00:00:09.052]around what's possible with technology
[00:00:11.907]and really help expand our thinking around what's possible.
[00:00:15.386]My name is Connie Reimers-Hild.
[00:00:17.320]I'm the Associative Executive Director
[00:00:18.820]and Chief Futurist at the Rural Futures Institute.
[00:00:21.400]And for those of you not familiar with
[00:00:23.280]The Rural Futures Institute.
[00:00:24.241]We are one of the University of Nebraska Wide Institute.
[00:00:27.980]So we work with our Medical Center in Omaha.
[00:00:30.780]The campus is Omaha, University of Nebraska Omaha.
[00:00:33.007]The Lincoln campus, the Carnie campus
[00:00:35.727]but also all of of extension faculty and staff
[00:00:38.004]across the state.
[00:00:40.230]And our role is really to grasp the intellectual capacity
[00:00:43.384]but then get it out there and help it
[00:00:45.920]be used in ways that works for a communities.
[00:00:48.120]And of course students are a big part of that.
[00:00:49.950]How many students do we have here?
[00:00:53.201]Yes, awesome.
[00:00:54.034]Thanks so much for coming.
[00:00:55.600]We just had a great conversation with a number
[00:00:57.367]of the Rake students.
[00:00:58.480]And what do they say?
[00:01:00.050]Is it 13 ranked students will be going to Microsoft
[00:01:03.014]I think this summer.
[00:01:04.743]And of course Shelly McKinley
[00:01:07.040]who will be giving our seminar.
[00:01:08.170]Who I'm not gonna introduce
[00:01:09.890]but you'll get to hear from her later.
[00:01:11.115]Was already naming building numbers
[00:01:13.744]and making them feel more comfortable about coming there.
[00:01:17.730]And being part of their campus and joining their culture.
[00:01:20.351]But it is my pleasure to introduce Matt Larsen.
[00:01:24.976]So, if you have not met Matt you will in just a second.
[00:01:28.480]But he is a CEO of Vistabeam.
[00:01:30.757]But I will also say that Matt is a serial entrepreneur.
[00:01:34.285]He's somebody that's a maverick
[00:01:36.490]and a maker at the same time.
[00:01:37.827]He actually made connections happen when people
[00:01:40.346]didn't think they could happen.
[00:01:42.010]And help connect rural areas when others thought
[00:01:44.300]it wasn't possible.
[00:01:45.620]He lives outside of Mitchell Nebraska with his family.
[00:01:48.361]Did your family come to the seminar today Matt?
[00:01:51.520]Where are they?
[00:01:53.449]Yes, applause.
[00:01:54.930]A little round of applause.
[00:01:55.980]Thank you for coming.
[00:01:57.070]We're very excited to have you here.
[00:01:59.166]And he served on the board of the
[00:02:01.330]Scottsbluff Gering Chamber of Commerce.
[00:02:03.150]And as the board president of the Twin Cities development.
[00:02:05.450]Economic development organization in Scottsbluff County.
[00:02:08.320]He has been operating fixed wireless networks since 1999.
[00:02:11.779]And is one of the founding board members
[00:02:14.650]of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association
[00:02:17.064]or WISPA.
[00:02:18.160]He's a veteran of the rural broadband business
[00:02:20.310]and his current company, Vistabeam.
[00:02:23.700]Covers a 40,000 square mile service area
[00:02:25.863]in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming.
[00:02:28.816]Now this is what I think is most interesting about Matt.
[00:02:31.136]He has a great sense of humor
[00:02:33.410]but in his spare time he plays is bass guitar in a band
[00:02:35.348]and also races stock cars.
[00:02:37.551]So he's a very interesting person but also a great partner.
[00:02:41.335]I love that he is this true maverick.
[00:02:44.060]We embrace that at The Rural Futures Institute
[00:02:45.750]and really want to help our rural communities
[00:02:48.580]make their futures possible through
[00:02:50.520]the sense of entrepreneurship and innovation.
[00:02:52.877]And he really makes the impossible happen.
[00:02:54.979]He naturally stretches boundaries
[00:02:57.490]to create those possibilities.
[00:02:58.837]And before I bring you up here Matt.
[00:03:01.080]I do want to just give a quick shout out
[00:03:03.641]to a gentleman in the back.
[00:03:05.882]Carl, I'm gonna spit this out
[00:03:08.669]but I know you're gonna make me work for it.
[00:03:10.679](laughing)
[00:03:12.530]Oh man, Elm Swizer.
[00:03:14.697]Is that even close?
[00:03:16.104]Say it again, say it out loud so they all hear it.
[00:03:20.570]Gosh, I knew it.
[00:03:21.403]I was gonna mess that up.
[00:03:22.900]But he is the State Director for Rural Development
[00:03:24.819]and it's just a pleasure to have you here
[00:03:27.090]and so many others as well.
[00:03:28.700]But we really appreciate you coming.
[00:03:30.434]And look forward to more partnership with you
[00:03:33.110]as we move forward.
[00:03:34.650]But now please join me in welcoming
[00:03:36.400]Matt Larsen to the front.
[00:03:37.887](clapping)
[00:03:43.040]Thanks Connie.
[00:03:44.631]So, 30 years ago I set foot on the campus down here
[00:03:49.821]for the first time as a student.
[00:03:51.459]And I was undecided what I wanted to do.
[00:03:53.930]It was either gonna be pure science or journalism.
[00:03:56.389]And I went and I met with the dean
[00:03:59.920]of the engineering college.
[00:04:01.850]And nearly fell asleep and pretty much
[00:04:04.300]all a journalism guy had to do was tell me
[00:04:06.440]I didn't have to take math classes.
[00:04:08.270]And immediately I was a journalism major.
[00:04:10.258]You know, we used to joke that Hamilton Hall over here
[00:04:13.530]was where all the engineering students went
[00:04:15.159]to take their math classes, fail.
[00:04:17.550]And then become business majors.
[00:04:19.070]So, there are many paths to success
[00:04:23.840]so I just want to point out that that's one of them.
[00:04:26.439]When I was in college here there was no internet.
[00:04:29.741]It was just kind of a government experiment
[00:04:33.058]and one of the things that I really had to do
[00:04:37.890]was go out and figure out how to do
[00:04:38.930]a lot of things on my own.
[00:04:41.037]In fact, my first introduction to the internet came in 93.
[00:04:43.556]I was working as a commodities broker
[00:04:46.978]and I was doing a video production business on the side.
[00:04:49.959]And I bought this package.
[00:04:52.396]It was on how to make $10,000 a month
[00:04:54.670]with your video production equipment.
[00:04:56.290]And it was about making how to videos.
[00:04:57.901]So, the guy that I bought this package from
[00:05:01.994]lived in Clarks Nebraska.
[00:05:03.437]And so I went and decided I'm go and visit this guy.
[00:05:06.335]And he's like I don't really have a lot to show you
[00:05:08.781]but you can come down and check it out.
[00:05:10.750]So I went and visited this guy to ask about video production
[00:05:13.134]and what I found out is here's this guy
[00:05:16.210]selling packages on how to make money doing this
[00:05:18.232]or doing that.
[00:05:19.860]He had about 20 different packages
[00:05:21.780]he was selling out of his basement.
[00:05:24.505]The guy was my age.
[00:05:26.438]He'd dropped out of college
[00:05:29.040]and was living at home on the farm
[00:05:30.550]trying to figure out what he was going to do with his life.
[00:05:32.515]And the one thing he said to me
[00:05:34.210]that completely changed my life was like.
[00:05:36.219]Have you heard about the internet?
[00:05:37.917]I'm like what is this internet you speak of you know?
[00:05:41.047]And so we early started looking at America Online prodigy
[00:05:46.978]and AOL, Compuserve and stuff like that.
[00:05:50.312]And these really early tech based internet things.
[00:05:52.254]It could be like huh.
[00:05:54.430]That's really interesting.
[00:05:55.410]So, this was 93 I think.
[00:05:57.261]I stayed in touch with this guy for a couple of years.
[00:06:01.074]A couple years later I was still doing video production.
[00:06:03.800]He called me and said.
[00:06:04.633]Hey, I'm selling my web hosting business.
[00:06:07.437]I'm moving out to California.
[00:06:08.270]If you want to buy it.
[00:06:09.350]I was like nah.
[00:06:11.383]I'm in the middle of trying to make
[00:06:13.547]this video production thing work.
[00:06:14.380]And I didn't hear from him again for a long time.
[00:06:17.603]My video production thing.
[00:06:19.590]It did not work.
[00:06:20.560]So, I ended up getting into this internet deal.
[00:06:22.751]I'd volunteered for a while with a
[00:06:24.975]community internet group in Colorado.
[00:06:27.007]Learned how to do it.
[00:06:28.300]When I came back to Scottsbluff
[00:06:29.879]and was like we need a better internet provider.
[00:06:31.490]So I started doing that with dial-up.
[00:06:33.791]And what was crazy was from the start dial-up internet.
[00:06:37.439]You could tell that it was just a band aid.
[00:06:41.123]It was just a patch.
[00:06:42.540]There was only so much that you could do with it.
[00:06:44.590]It was really inconvenient.
[00:06:45.590]In was really expensive and being in Colorado
[00:06:49.240]we had this thing called an ISDN Liner.
[00:06:51.740]T-1 line where you had a whopping 1.5 megabit.
[00:06:55.203]And it was like just looking at that
[00:06:57.731]you could tell how much more powerful this is gonna be.
[00:07:00.355]So, that kind of became my goal.
[00:07:03.300]Is to figure out how to get that kind of connectivity
[00:07:05.002]out to more people.
[00:07:06.643]And we did that and for the first
[00:07:10.159]three years I was running my ISP out in Scottsbluff.
[00:07:13.083]We were I think the third ISP in the state
[00:07:17.088]to offer via cell service.
[00:07:18.552]And the only way were were able to offer it
[00:07:20.506]was we told the phone company it was going to be for
[00:07:22.831]alarm loops cause they used to have a deal
[00:07:25.775]where they would put.
[00:07:27.501]Just set a copper pair going to your business
[00:07:29.479]for your alarm system.
[00:07:30.950]But we took that pair and we put DSL modems on it.
[00:07:33.274]We were able to offer higher speed internet.
[00:07:36.035]And that worked great for a couple of years
[00:07:39.014]until the phone company decided they were
[00:07:40.856]going to get into DSL.
[00:07:42.476]And immediately, the price of our loops went up.
[00:07:45.840]They became harder to get
[00:07:47.412]and I didn't need to be a business major
[00:07:49.772]to know that my business model is not
[00:07:52.090]gonna be sustainable in that kind of environment.
[00:07:54.540]So I went out looking for alternatives
[00:07:56.572]and that's when I came across wireless microwave.
[00:08:00.066]And using that as a way to deliver broadband.
[00:08:02.733]And the equipment was pretty primitive to start out with.
[00:08:06.078]In fact, a lot of the stuff that we were doing.
[00:08:09.640]We basically took indoor access points.
[00:08:11.204]Hooked up outdoor antennas to them
[00:08:13.865]and pointed them at each other from
[00:08:16.221]five or ten mile distances to see what would work.
[00:08:19.662]And whoa, we were able to make some connections here
[00:08:23.386]and there.
[00:08:24.730]It was very primitive.
[00:08:25.890]It was very seat of the pants.
[00:08:27.317]There wasn't a guideline.
[00:08:29.613]There was no class I could go to in college
[00:08:31.916]to figure out how to do this.
[00:08:33.580]We had to go out and talk with other people
[00:08:36.000]who were experimenting with this.
[00:08:37.310]And figure out how to make it work.
[00:08:39.370]So, I'd sold my original ISP to another company
[00:08:42.026]and worked for them for a while.
[00:08:45.117]And when things didn't work out there
[00:08:47.432]it was time to do something else in 2004.
[00:08:50.857]I said alright, it's time to do something new.
[00:08:54.370]What's gonna make the most sense?
[00:08:56.085]I looked at everything
[00:08:57.305]and using wireless was the only solution
[00:08:59.580]that really seemed to make sense in the rural area
[00:09:02.420]that we were at because you can put up one access point.
[00:09:05.440]You can cover a big area.
[00:09:06.538]You can do all your own stuff
[00:09:08.418]and you don't have to be dependent on the phone company
[00:09:11.285]or the cable company or anybody else.
[00:09:13.760]As long as we can get internet connection
[00:09:15.543]somewhere along the line.
[00:09:17.823]We could go out and build out our own network.
[00:09:20.271]And that was a very powerful thing
[00:09:23.751]to be able to go out and do
[00:09:25.860]because I think so many people operate
[00:09:28.830]under the idea of, you know.
[00:09:30.580]We need to go out and force this company to do a better job.
[00:09:33.470]To provide service for us.
[00:09:35.431]And there's not enough of the attitude of
[00:09:38.126]if that guy is not gonna take care of it
[00:09:40.010]I'm gonna go find somebody else that can.
[00:09:42.000]And that's really what we did.
[00:09:43.142]And from the start we started out with three towers
[00:09:45.704]around Gering and Scottbluff and Minatare
[00:09:50.570]and then Torrington Wyoming.
[00:09:52.550]Were the towers we started out with.
[00:09:54.240]And then we just started expanding one by one.
[00:09:56.760]We just kept adding.
[00:09:58.926]People would call, hey.
[00:10:00.137]Can you do better than that out here?
[00:10:00.990]Well, if we get enough people we can build out
[00:10:02.859]and then we'd have 20 phone calls.
[00:10:04.246]And we just kept building our network out
[00:10:06.222]and building our network out.
[00:10:07.935]And making more connections.
[00:10:09.622]And now we're at the point where
[00:10:12.230]I think we have over 200 towers spread out.
[00:10:15.231]We're serving nearly 4,000 subscribers
[00:10:17.448]which as far as size of ISP's go.
[00:10:20.394]That's really not very big
[00:10:22.071]but tell that to the people that are out there
[00:10:24.660]that we're about the only choice that they have
[00:10:26.390]to try to get internet.
[00:10:27.558]We've done things where we're able to put
[00:10:30.996]these little solar powered towers on top of a hilltop
[00:10:35.476]and turn around and get internet out to some places
[00:10:39.071]that don't have any hope of getting anything.
[00:10:40.991]An example, we had a rancher that bought some property
[00:10:44.274]north of Fort Laramie Wyoming.
[00:10:46.382]Guy moved out from Texas.
[00:10:48.590]Bought this big ranch and he called us up.
[00:10:50.582]Says I want to get me some internet out here at my ranch.
[00:10:54.059]So well sir, we're looking at the deal.
[00:10:57.255]The only way you can get it is you're gonna have to
[00:11:00.274]talk to your neighbor to let us put something
[00:11:02.370]on the hilltop and then we're gonna have to
[00:11:04.060]put a $10,000 tower on top of it.
[00:11:05.977]And I'm gonna have to charge you for it
[00:11:07.480]because we can't justify doing all this stuff
[00:11:09.901]just to get to you.
[00:11:11.090]And he said buddy, just get it out there.
[00:11:13.176]I just paid my plumber $15,000
[00:11:15.506]and I need internet more than I need indoor plumbing.
[00:11:18.900]So make it happen.
[00:11:20.298]That's the kind of environment we're running into
[00:11:22.751]out in a lot of these places.
[00:11:24.600]And he's one of the lucky ones
[00:11:25.680]cause he can write a check to figure out
[00:11:27.140]how to make it happen.
[00:11:28.690]But what we really need to do is
[00:11:31.187]figure out how to resolve some of our digital divide issues.
[00:11:34.659]And there's two different digital divides
[00:11:36.630]that I'm talking about.
[00:11:37.540]The one most people are familiar with
[00:11:39.222]which is the idea that a lot of rural areas
[00:11:41.728]are unserved and underserved.
[00:11:43.311]The other one is the idea that all of our cities
[00:11:46.083]and a lot of places that you would typically consider
[00:11:49.067]to have really good connectivity don't really have that.
[00:11:51.534]It's the digital divide where the rest of the world
[00:11:55.907]needs to catch up to Scottbluff Nebraska
[00:11:57.706]because down here in Lincoln you guys
[00:12:00.410]are just getting ALLO right now, right.
[00:12:02.307]Those of you that are from the town.
[00:12:04.810]We've added ALLO for 12 years.
[00:12:05.974]I've been doing business with ALLO since 2005
[00:12:09.499]and they've done a wonderful job of
[00:12:12.380]bringing in a much better level of connectivity
[00:12:15.075]in our community out there.
[00:12:16.746]And we've got every option any business could possibly want
[00:12:20.208]to try and come out to our area that's connectivity based.
[00:12:24.499]On my racing team, there's a guy that works for Oracle.
[00:12:29.290]Had just moved from Denver
[00:12:30.450]and he said he's got way better connectivity in Scottsbluff
[00:12:32.730]than he had Denver.
[00:12:33.850]So, I am really enjoying going to different conferences
[00:12:37.623]and telling all these people from these big towns
[00:12:40.401]in Colorado and around the country that are talking about.
[00:12:43.950]What do we need to do to fix their internet?
[00:12:45.880]And say well, you're gonna have to catch up to Scottsbluff
[00:12:48.050]because we've kind of got it figured out there.
[00:12:50.290]And we were able to do it without a lot of government money.
[00:12:52.291]There were local economic development incentives
[00:12:55.956]that ALLOW used to kind of slowly build up
[00:12:58.579]their employee count and keep people local.
[00:13:01.981]The same time that ALLO is building up customers
[00:13:05.120]and we were adding employees.
[00:13:06.407]The local telephone company was getting rid of people.
[00:13:10.207]Instead of having a local tech
[00:13:12.360]you were having a call center somewhere to get help.
[00:13:14.144]And the quality of service just went down hill.
[00:13:18.207]The local phone company in Scottsbluff County
[00:13:21.840]is now below 20% market share because we have a competition
[00:13:25.022]and it's been able to go out
[00:13:26.670]and provide that level of service that needed to be there
[00:13:29.398]and take customers to where they need to be taken care of.
[00:13:32.130]So, I think that's a really important thing to look at
[00:13:35.040]going forward and one of the reasons I'm really excited
[00:13:37.760]to see Microsoft getting involved in this
[00:13:40.018]is because they're approaching it from
[00:13:42.755]a very good strategic view point.
[00:13:46.424]Because it's not just money.
[00:13:48.427]What's going on when you look at government.
[00:13:51.172]When you look at what the government does.
[00:13:53.987]The government generally tends to throw money at a problem
[00:13:56.187]and that doesn't really work out very well with broadband.
[00:14:00.180]We've been throwing a lot of money
[00:14:02.590]at rural broadband for a long time.
[00:14:04.167]Given it to the same players and getting the same results.
[00:14:06.847]What I'm really excited seeing about with Microsoft
[00:14:09.604]is in addition to their airband initiative
[00:14:12.371]which is throwing a little bit of money at the problem
[00:14:14.944]but hopefully in the right places.
[00:14:16.727]They're also looking at licensing
[00:14:18.744]white spaces technology.
[00:14:20.963]And doing a lot of digital training
[00:14:23.775]and I think that's a great thing
[00:14:26.149]because that kind of helps build up the demand
[00:14:28.320]by training people and giving people the skills they need
[00:14:30.808]to use the tools that are out there.
[00:14:33.047]It's gonna make people a lot more employable in rural areas.
[00:14:36.619]It's gonna make it a lot easier for people
[00:14:40.280]to move into rural areas and do jobs where
[00:14:42.395]they can do any job around the world.
[00:14:45.040]As long as they got a good connection.
[00:14:46.712]But we have to train people to understand
[00:14:48.627]how they can do that.
[00:14:50.360]And the other thing is the TV white spaces thing
[00:14:53.476]which I help found our trade association in 2004.
[00:14:58.460]And a big focus of our trade association
[00:15:01.742]was to figure out how to lobby and how to get access
[00:15:04.498]to TV white spaces spectrum.
[00:15:06.167]Because it's kind of.
[00:15:08.011]None of it's a silver bullet
[00:15:09.890]but it's a sort of thing that let's us
[00:15:11.390]figure out how to get through trees.
[00:15:12.710]It covered very large areas.
[00:15:13.900]Things that are really important with rural.
[00:15:15.950]And we have a lot of restrictions we have to work with.
[00:15:17.702]Generally we use line of sight technology.
[00:15:19.622]So if somebody's got a lot of trees around them
[00:15:23.150]we can't offer the same speeds.
[00:15:25.129]Or people are too far away we can't get to them
[00:15:27.560]but TV white spaces actually fixes a lot of that.
[00:15:29.938]Because it has the ability to reach out
[00:15:32.158]and get to a lot more people than a lot of the stuff
[00:15:35.210]that we're using.
[00:15:36.398]We started our trade association in 2004.
[00:15:38.715]Trade association in 2004.
[00:15:40.324]It's been 14 years, we still don't have usable equipment
[00:15:45.419]that we can use the TV white space.
[00:15:48.066]So, I don't think we're ever gonna get there
[00:15:50.154]without the help of companies like Microsoft
[00:15:53.021]throwing in and saying alright.
[00:15:55.470]Here's something that is gonna help make this happen.
[00:15:57.222]We're gonna try to figure out how to help make that happen.
[00:15:59.329]So, like I said I'm really excited to see Microsoft
[00:16:03.494]getting involved in this.
[00:16:04.877]I really believe in the power of connectivity
[00:16:09.437]in rural areas.
[00:16:11.854]To be able to make a difference.
[00:16:13.562]I'll go back to when I was telling you
[00:16:15.803]at the beginning of my talk here when I told you about
[00:16:19.600]the guy who was living in his parents basement
[00:16:21.542]that was selling information packages
[00:16:23.595]and went off to California.
[00:16:25.109]Well 2004, I came across him again in Wired Magazine
[00:16:30.314]because he had created a company called Blogger.
[00:16:33.860]They turned around and told to Google
[00:16:35.361]and a couple of years later
[00:16:37.089]when he was working on another project.
[00:16:39.310]They took a system that they were using to
[00:16:40.963]send messages to each other during development process
[00:16:44.516]and he pulled the plug on everything else to focus
[00:16:47.837]on that messaging system.
[00:16:49.736]Well that messaging system you all know of now is Twitter.
[00:16:52.993]So, Evan Williams the guy that pretty much told me
[00:16:57.210]about the internet when I first came across it.
[00:17:00.897]So, there we were two farm kids sitting in his basement
[00:17:03.936]looking at these information packages
[00:17:06.913]and looking at these very primitive connectivity.
[00:17:09.461]And seeing something we knew was gonna change the world
[00:17:12.905]one way or another.
[00:17:14.480]And so that's just an illustration of the power
[00:17:16.533]of what people in rural areas can do when
[00:17:19.269]they're given the connectivity and given the opportunity
[00:17:21.356]to go out and make things happen.
[00:17:23.332]So, with no further ado.
[00:17:25.900]I will turn it over to Shelly.
[00:17:28.900](clapping)
[00:17:32.395]I think I'm mic'd up so.
[00:17:33.481](clapping)
[00:17:36.176]Well wow, it's really a pleasure for me to be here today
[00:17:39.713]and to follow that great plug for Microsoft
[00:17:42.820]that you just put in because we are
[00:17:44.600]really excited about this.
[00:17:46.640]So, what I want to talk about to you today
[00:17:48.223]is really two things.
[00:17:50.540]One is how are we gonna connect people?
[00:17:53.028]And how are we going to use advanced technologies
[00:17:56.377]to really change the world?
[00:17:57.780]Two of my favorite topics at Microsoft.
[00:17:59.888]So let's get rolling here.
[00:18:02.644]You may wonder why are we in this?
[00:18:04.980]Why does Microsoft care about connecting the world?
[00:18:08.330]We know Microsoft cares about changing the world
[00:18:09.712]but why does Microsoft care about connecting the world
[00:18:12.150]particularly in rural areas?
[00:18:14.260]Our mission as a company is to empower every person
[00:18:16.227]on the planet to achieve more.
[00:18:17.785]And it doesn't matter where you live.
[00:18:19.724]It doesn't matter if you live in urban America,
[00:18:21.610]rural America.
[00:18:22.710]If you live in Germany.
[00:18:24.900]If you live in Iran.
[00:18:26.320]Wherever you live we want to help people achieve more.
[00:18:29.020]We want to do that in a way that allows people
[00:18:31.202]to take advantage of their rapidly advancing technology
[00:18:33.825]to really accelerate innovation and change their lives
[00:18:37.317]in meaningful ways.
[00:18:41.647]That was a little brief.
[00:18:43.832]If you don't mind moving forward there.
[00:18:45.697]Before I get started down that path.
[00:18:49.345]I did want to say that we do have this challenge
[00:18:54.560]in today's society.
[00:18:55.550]You've seen the newspaper every single day.
[00:18:57.652]Technology is moving forward but it's leaving people behind.
[00:19:04.461]And so that's why in so many ways
[00:19:07.344]two of the most important areas that I'm working on
[00:19:10.910]and that we're working on as a company.
[00:19:12.492]Are solving this broadband gap.
[00:19:15.020]Well, you just did a great job laying it out Matt
[00:19:17.497]and what that really looks like.
[00:19:19.300]And then once we have broadband everywhere
[00:19:21.560]or actually now already.
[00:19:22.910]Take advantage of this AI opportunity
[00:19:24.672]to really make progress.
[00:19:26.962]So first, let's talk a little bit about
[00:19:29.210]the broadband gap and what we're doing in that area.
[00:19:31.056]As you heard, internet access is in fact today
[00:19:34.912]a necessity of life.
[00:19:36.032]It helps people get access to telemedicine, education,
[00:19:40.516]agriculture and business.
[00:19:42.900]These are all areas that are rapidly advancing.
[00:19:44.598]And they're areas that today you only have access to
[00:19:48.384]if you have access to the internet.
[00:19:50.624]This is where we're gonna see all
[00:19:52.440]the technological advancement is going to come through
[00:19:54.424]access to the internet and access particularly to broadband.
[00:19:56.701]Because the old dial-up doesn't work today.
[00:20:00.220]Doesn't work anymore.
[00:20:02.885]We think of this in some ways as the electricity
[00:20:06.604]of the 21st century.
[00:20:08.124]So, really a fundamental.
[00:20:10.586]Let's not maybe call it a human right
[00:20:12.339]but it is like electricity was in the 21st century,
[00:20:17.376]in the 21st century.
[00:20:18.690]So, at the same time we're seeing articles
[00:20:21.990]in the paper everyday.
[00:20:23.192]Rural America is stranded in the dial-up age
[00:20:25.700]while urban America has the opportunity to
[00:20:28.299]take advantage of all the technological advancement.
[00:20:32.270]And what we know from the FCC data
[00:20:35.386]is that there are 25 million people in America
[00:20:37.602]do not have access to broadband.
[00:20:40.362]And in fact, 19 million of those people
[00:20:44.140]reside in rural communities.
[00:20:46.442]So there are also another six million people
[00:20:48.455]that do reside in urban areas that can't get either
[00:20:51.610]access at all or can't get affordable access.
[00:20:54.187]So they can't pay for internet access
[00:20:55.971]in the same way that people who pay a monthly prescription.
[00:20:58.494]Those are also people we need to serve.
[00:21:00.710]This year at Microsoft, we're very focused on
[00:21:02.202]serving people in rural America
[00:21:04.139]because the need is massive.
[00:21:06.400]If you see 19 million people.
[00:21:08.374]I want to show you a broadband map.
[00:21:10.543]This is what the situation looks like
[00:21:13.530]according to FCC data.
[00:21:14.855]If you look, the dark red areas that have
[00:21:18.011]less than a third of the people have
[00:21:20.830]broadband speed internet.
[00:21:22.060]So broadband speed internet is basically
[00:21:24.430]25 megabytes up, three megabytes down.
[00:21:25.838]It's defined that way.
[00:21:27.547]It's not necessarily what you get over a mobile phone
[00:21:30.075]all the time although you can.
[00:21:31.747]It's not necessarily what many providers provide
[00:21:35.258]but it is the definition that the FCC.
[00:21:37.425]The Federal Communication Commission is given
[00:21:39.323]to broadband access.
[00:21:40.886]When you look at the map you also see
[00:21:42.595]the kind of medium red which is between
[00:21:46.091]one third and two thirds of people there have access.
[00:21:48.619]And then you see the lighter which is basically
[00:21:52.417]anywhere between two thirds
[00:21:55.410]and everyone has access to internet.
[00:21:57.270]Well, what we know is that this data is based
[00:22:00.282]on census data.
[00:22:01.830]We know there's a census coming up.
[00:22:02.990]It's been all over the radio
[00:22:04.090]and all the things that's going to ask in the new census.
[00:22:06.803]And this is what the state of Nebraska looks like today.
[00:22:10.705]And if you see Lancaster County, right there.
[00:22:14.171]Which is in the black square.
[00:22:16.251]What the FCC data tells us is that 98%
[00:22:19.807]of the people in Lancaster County have access
[00:22:23.220]to the internet.
[00:22:24.555]Does anyone in this room believe that's true?
[00:22:26.830]I think Caitlin probably doesn't believe that's true
[00:22:27.915]based on our conversation this morning.
[00:22:30.328]That in fact, this data probably wildly under represents
[00:22:34.375]the number of people that aren't connected.
[00:22:36.464]Because the way the FCC takes that data
[00:22:38.880]is if one person in the census block is covered.
[00:22:41.420]It's kind of counted as covered.
[00:22:43.115]We found this out which I think is
[00:22:45.310]probably similar here when we looked deeper
[00:22:47.350]in Washington State.
[00:22:48.931]What you see in the outline here is Ferry County.
[00:22:51.459]Ferry County is a county that is one county over from Idaho.
[00:22:54.743]It's one of the poorest counties in Washington.
[00:22:57.175]However, according to the data it's covered.
[00:22:59.495]It's covered in fact with an amazing
[00:23:02.430]amount of internet speed.
[00:23:03.800]You see over there to the left it says 100 up and 100 down.
[00:23:06.735]Well, when we looked at those providers
[00:23:11.747]that provide internet access.
[00:23:13.271]We say huh, neither one of them served Ferry County.
[00:23:16.030]That's pretty interesting.
[00:23:17.679]They actually don't provide service there
[00:23:19.503]so we know that the FCC databases are very
[00:23:21.343]very flawed in who's covered.
[00:23:23.359]How can we provide electricity to people
[00:23:26.536]if we don't know whether they have it?
[00:23:28.775]How can we provide internet access to people
[00:23:30.919]if we don't know where we need to invest?
[00:23:34.435]So one of the things we need to do
[00:23:36.050]is really work to ensure that we get much much better data.
[00:23:40.138]And so that and many other reasons is really why
[00:23:42.987]we and Microsoft launched a new broadband strategy.
[00:23:48.459]Really, kind of wanted to spark a discussion around this,
[00:23:51.210]a national discussion.
[00:23:52.043]And I think frankly it's really resonated
[00:23:53.560]on both sides of the aisle.
[00:23:55.620]It's called the Airband Initiative.
[00:23:57.810]We have a bold ambition
[00:24:00.000]which is to connect those two million people
[00:24:02.110]over the next five years directly through
[00:24:04.820]the work that we do with partners.
[00:24:06.734]But even more important than that.
[00:24:09.833]The real goal is to really eliminate that broadband gap
[00:24:14.889]by July 4th.
[00:24:17.750]My boss tells me this all the time.
[00:24:19.920]July 4th 2022 is the date that I'm looking for
[00:24:23.568]and that we know requires much much more than Microsoft.
[00:24:29.150]It requires much much more than one technology.
[00:24:30.940]It requires that we have an hybrid approach.
[00:24:34.670]As you mentioned earlier,
[00:24:36.160]you can't just count on one kind of technology
[00:24:37.872]to cover people.
[00:24:38.870]You have to use things like TV white spaces
[00:24:40.993]which fundamentally.
[00:24:42.775]People don't know, it is serving internet
[00:24:46.650]broadband access over a used television spectrum.
[00:24:49.880]In the old days you turned your TV channel
[00:24:53.153]and there was a bunch of static and white.
[00:24:54.921]You think about that.
[00:24:56.400]This is like television spectrum that no one is using.
[00:24:58.910]It is really actually a public asset.
[00:25:02.880]So we are working to get allocation of that spectrum.
[00:25:05.819]It also does require public investment.
[00:25:08.388]It requires public investment in a number of ways.
[00:25:11.210]Whether that's money with matching capital infrastructure
[00:25:14.103]funding from state, federal governments.
[00:25:17.100]Whether it's local people.
[00:25:18.790]I think it's just so amazing to here local stories.
[00:25:21.430]Because fundamentally this is all local.
[00:25:23.144]Fundamentally it's people in the community
[00:25:25.390]who know what the community needs.
[00:25:27.200]It can help get access to things like towers.
[00:25:28.888]You could put up a tower on a farm in a grain tower.
[00:25:33.295]There are all kinds of different ways to be creative
[00:25:35.860]and help solve these problems.
[00:25:36.693]But only if they get creative and we use things.
[00:25:40.500]New technologies like TV white spaces
[00:25:41.967]and we actually cover the country in a
[00:25:43.730]much more affordable way.
[00:25:45.734]As you mentioned, TV white space has a great opportunity
[00:25:48.760]to get around challenging geographies.
[00:25:50.095]Now I know that's a challenge in some areas in Nebraska
[00:25:52.636]and not such a challenge in others.
[00:25:54.231]But if you look at a network
[00:25:55.950]and you can mix those technologies
[00:25:57.430]and use the best available technology to cover an area.
[00:25:59.790]You can get to access the best price possible.
[00:26:03.626]And so what we hope to do importantly,
[00:26:06.480]is to spark others to follow the lead.
[00:26:08.481]To get this started as an issue of national importance
[00:26:13.306]that we need to solve.
[00:26:15.160]And to ensure that people are incredibly focused on this.
[00:26:17.710]So that's why we started investing.
[00:26:19.125]How are we gonna achieve those goals?
[00:26:20.832]Partnering with ISP's.
[00:26:23.700]I mean, this is number one.
[00:26:24.980]We are not gonna become a Telco company.
[00:26:26.608]We are not gonna go out and get direct customers.
[00:26:29.970]We're gonna partner with local partners
[00:26:31.244]who know the environment locally.
[00:26:33.300]Who know the system.
[00:26:34.467]Who know the people and what they need
[00:26:36.201]to ensure that we can cover these areas
[00:26:38.231]in the best possible way.
[00:26:40.633]We will be investing in skills.
[00:26:43.161]We have a partnership with The Council for the 4H.
[00:26:47.377]To really think about once you get something there.
[00:26:50.350]How do you use it well as you mentioned?
[00:26:51.596]Super important.
[00:26:53.360]We want to stimulate the use of our technology
[00:26:56.490]beyond our own projects.
[00:26:57.637]As you mentioned the TV white space technology,
[00:27:00.337]has advanced a lot over the last 10 years.
[00:27:03.973]It's ready to go.
[00:27:05.301]It's expensive still and there is still
[00:27:07.104]technical advancements that need to be done
[00:27:09.730]to TV white spaces.
[00:27:11.080]So we're investing in hardware as well.
[00:27:12.780]To ensure that we can bring that cost down
[00:27:14.720]so you can bring the utilization up.
[00:27:17.045]And certainly we are lobbying in Washington DC
[00:27:20.310]and around the country for infrastructure investment
[00:27:22.750]in broadband.
[00:27:25.384]So, I love a call to action in a university.
[00:27:28.098]Your call to action is to contact your governor
[00:27:32.414]and urge him to urge the FCC to allocate
[00:27:37.467]sufficient spectrum for TV white space technology.
[00:27:39.423]We aren't asking for the entire television spectrum.
[00:27:41.953]We aren't actually asking for much when you look at
[00:27:44.968]the amount of television spectrum available.
[00:27:46.932]Particularly in rural areas.
[00:27:49.041]There's plenty of spectrum to go around.
[00:27:50.941]And you need ensure that you use it in a way
[00:27:53.443]that best serves the public.
[00:27:54.910]So that's what we're asking the FCC to do.
[00:27:56.489]Is to really make this type of spectrum available
[00:27:58.941]so that we can get a little bit more spectrum
[00:28:01.805]than what's available today to service technology.
[00:28:04.641]And we're not asking for it on an exclusive basis.
[00:28:06.877]We are asking for to use unlicensed spectrum
[00:28:09.445]just the same way your wifi spots do
[00:28:11.411]or your microphones or anything else
[00:28:13.436]that operates in the unused spectrum.
[00:28:15.454]And so clearly we also want to lobby and push for
[00:28:19.010]federal and state infrastructures.
[00:28:21.230]So that would be another thing to ask your governor for.
[00:28:23.199]So, when we bring technology to an area.
[00:28:26.543]When we bring internet access to an area.
[00:28:28.950]You heard what it can do to change people's lives.
[00:28:32.496]What it can do to change education.
[00:28:34.810]I want to show you a video of a young man
[00:28:37.470]we met in Virginia that we did a TV whites
[00:28:39.050]spaces project with and how that changed his life.
[00:28:45.868]Let's see if I can get this rolling.
[00:28:50.567]This is always the fear when you're gonna have a.
[00:28:53.440]Did I touch it?
[00:28:56.080]I turned the whole system off.
[00:28:57.450]I am, wow.
[00:28:59.890]Okay, it's going but it's not showing.
[00:29:03.715]We can't miss this video, it's too awesome.
[00:29:07.650]Okay.
[00:29:14.449]Just stop the picture.
[00:29:15.282]Oh, there we go.
[00:29:17.456]Excellent, thank you.
[00:29:19.315]Always telling the Microsoft person
[00:29:21.039]how to use software is awesome.
[00:29:21.958](laughing)
[00:29:23.053](mellow music)
[00:32:27.613](casual music)
[00:32:31.150]I can't tell you how many times I've seen that video
[00:32:33.420]and I just love it.
[00:32:34.450]It makes me tear up every time
[00:32:35.670]because it's such a great story of a person
[00:32:38.080]who's life was dramatically transformed
[00:32:39.492]by their ability to access the internet.
[00:32:41.630]And also now they have the ability
[00:32:43.332]to go back home to their community if they want to
[00:32:45.690]and have a great high paying job that they
[00:32:47.732]could do remotely over the internet.
[00:32:50.191]We need to be much much more thoughtful
[00:32:53.250]about how we ensure that people can stay in communities
[00:32:56.410]that they come from if they want to and have great jobs.
[00:32:58.970]So, I know we'll probably talk a little bit more
[00:33:03.570]in the Q and A on TV white spaces and this technology.
[00:33:06.170]But I did want to just for a moment.
[00:33:08.294]Really talk to you a little bit about
[00:33:10.591]what I see as a huge opportunity that we have
[00:33:12.794]going forward to solve some of the most
[00:33:15.354]challenging problems of the world.
[00:33:18.420]And that's in AI.
[00:33:19.610]It really is a game changer.
[00:33:23.412]What is AI?
[00:33:24.571]I had this explained to me a million times.
[00:33:26.790]I'm a lawyer by trade.
[00:33:28.000]I am not a computer scientist
[00:33:30.120]but I work with computer scientists everyday.
[00:33:31.531]I've asked this question a million times.
[00:33:33.270]No one could explain this to me.
[00:33:35.051]They kept telling me a lot of words I didn't understand
[00:33:37.371]until finally someone actually put it together for me.
[00:33:41.266]What is artificial intelligence
[00:33:44.617]and what is machine learning?
[00:33:46.070]Basically, the long story that I can even explain.
[00:33:49.931]This confusing cloud computing on data sets
[00:33:53.166]to gain insights and to be able to take action on that.
[00:33:57.110]What is artificial intelligence?
[00:33:58.731]Artificial intelligence is the result
[00:34:00.827]of this machine computing.
[00:34:02.820]It's really the result that you're getting out
[00:34:04.680]of computing working on the big data sets
[00:34:07.990]and gaining insights.
[00:34:09.409]So, similarly to the other topics we talked about.
[00:34:13.931]There are significant issues and concerns people have
[00:34:18.330]around artificial intelligence.
[00:34:20.680]It sounds scary, it's artificial.
[00:34:22.820]It's computers taking over the world.
[00:34:24.145]That's all scary stuff and we don't understand
[00:34:26.433]what the opportunity is.
[00:34:30.410]And in fact people are asking questions like.
[00:34:32.870]How are they going to impact people?
[00:34:35.292]Are they going to take away my job?
[00:34:36.730]What's going to happen to me?
[00:34:38.487]So, at Microsoft we love writing little
[00:34:42.647]thought pieces about some of these important policy issues.
[00:34:45.725]So we just recently put out a book about AI
[00:34:48.205]called The Future Computing.
[00:34:50.211]The Future Computed.
[00:34:51.929]And really what we tried to do with this book
[00:34:55.811]is to start identifying what are the issues
[00:34:58.480]that we as a society grapple with
[00:35:00.530]to come to terms of the impact of AI on people.
[00:35:02.611]And really one of the key things that we learned
[00:35:06.580]was we don't really need to be asking the question.
[00:35:09.610]What can computers do but what should computers do?
[00:35:12.640]And how do we grapple with that?
[00:35:14.157]And so as we think about the development of AI
[00:35:15.929]it becomes actually really quite clear.
[00:35:18.590]We need to develop AI in an ethical way.
[00:35:21.260]If computers are gonna start making decisions.
[00:35:23.250]We need to do this in an ethical way.
[00:35:25.330]So we need to have principles around how we design AI.
[00:35:27.689]First, it starts off with fairness.
[00:35:31.070]How do we ensure the algorithm that maybe
[00:35:32.970]we don't understand.
[00:35:34.390]We're not computer scientists.
[00:35:35.270]How are they acting fairly?
[00:35:37.488]How are we ensuring that biases by the computer scientists.
[00:35:40.630]The scientists that actually do this work
[00:35:42.793]aren't built into the algorithms
[00:35:44.630]and coming out with answers that are
[00:35:46.540]perpetuating those biases.
[00:35:47.680]This is a super important thing.
[00:35:49.390]How do we make sure that they're reliable and safe?
[00:35:51.934]That isn't new really actually.
[00:35:54.549]I mean that's been an issue with technology all along.
[00:35:56.651]From a car to the first computer.
[00:35:59.012]Reliability and safety issues.
[00:36:00.692]Privacy and security have always been issues
[00:36:03.820]in computing field.
[00:36:04.653]We've seen this really in mass over the last few years
[00:36:07.751]with all the privacy and security problems we've had.
[00:36:09.753]And importantly, how we make sure
[00:36:12.750]it's designed with an eye to exclusivity
[00:36:14.812]and actually designed inclusively.
[00:36:18.646]Well, we have to make sure that all of you
[00:36:21.935]humanities students that are in the audience.
[00:36:25.492]Breathe a big sigh of relief knowing
[00:36:28.610]that in fact you will continue to have jobs
[00:36:30.430]at technology companies even if you aren't engineers.
[00:36:34.734]Because what we need to do is make sure that
[00:36:37.066]people with humanities backgrounds are also
[00:36:39.490]working side by side with engineers to ensure
[00:36:41.710]that software is designed in a way that takes into account
[00:36:46.452]human qualities and human values.
[00:36:48.830]It also means that we need to educate their engineers
[00:36:50.683]to get better on these things.
[00:36:52.530]It should be part of the core computer science education.
[00:36:54.430]In the same way, the computing should be
[00:36:57.294]a part of the core curriculum of the humanities
[00:36:59.630]so that everyone has a better understanding
[00:37:01.590]and we can develop this in a much better way together.
[00:37:04.610]Transparency is also key.
[00:37:05.913]How can we actually know what's happening
[00:37:09.010]unless we have some transparency into the companies
[00:37:11.140]that are building this stuff.
[00:37:12.810]And not like hey, here's my algorithm.
[00:37:14.910]Because number one, I wouldn't understand what that was.
[00:37:16.750]Number two, there are of course things in there
[00:37:19.620]that you don't want to have competitors
[00:37:21.080]getting their hands on or hackers
[00:37:23.200]getting their hands on.
[00:37:24.800]But how do I explain what this algorithm does
[00:37:27.631]and how it's making its decisions so people could understand
[00:37:30.660]and feel comfortable with what's going on?
[00:37:32.367]And then finally and maybe most importantly,
[00:37:35.130]the accountability.
[00:37:36.230]People that design computing systems
[00:37:38.207]need to be held accountable in the same way
[00:37:39.907]that people who design cars are held accountable.
[00:37:42.089]So there's a whole new area of law
[00:37:44.760]that's developing around this.
[00:37:45.943]From the ethics of AI it's going to be incredibly important
[00:37:47.769]as we proceed and understand that computers
[00:37:51.379]are becoming more human if you will.
[00:37:54.445]But what that really means is they're gonna be doing
[00:37:56.801]a lot of tasks that are sort of high volume.
[00:37:59.282]Lots of data.
[00:38:01.122]Things that really are helping detect things that are today
[00:38:05.511]not perceptible by humans.
[00:38:07.881]And so the combination of computing and humans.
[00:38:10.924]You get a much much better result.
[00:38:13.665]How do we augment human capability
[00:38:15.884]with computing capability?
[00:38:17.630]When you look at things like x-rays
[00:38:20.204]and figuring out what's on an x-ray.
[00:38:22.840]If a human looks at it there's some percentage of error.
[00:38:25.210]If a computer looks at it there's some percentage of error.
[00:38:27.126]When you bring those two things together
[00:38:28.941]you get virtually know errors.
[00:38:31.265]Very very low.
[00:38:32.710]So you can really bring down and help humanity that way.
[00:38:35.630]Bring down the error rate.
[00:38:37.868]So really the question, after you get through
[00:38:41.680]all the ethical stuff.
[00:38:42.610]Which is hard, hard stuff.
[00:38:44.640]Is how can we empower people using AI?
[00:38:46.940]And this is where I think we have a massive opportunity.
[00:38:48.930]If we can get over the fear of AI.
[00:38:50.540]We have a massive opportunity to make a huge difference.
[00:38:52.348]Imagine what computers can do for people with disabilities.
[00:38:55.404]Computers have the power to see the world,
[00:38:58.301]hear the world, understand the world, interpret and speak.
[00:39:03.311]Depending on what kind of disability people have.
[00:39:06.125]Computers can take over and augment them.
[00:39:08.470]So I want to show you another video.
[00:39:11.450]I love videos because they're such great real people.
[00:39:13.809]Of a Microsoft research engineer in Cambridge.
[00:39:19.532]Opps and a product called Seeing AI.
[00:39:26.404]I think I got it down this time.
[00:39:37.205](casual music)
[00:39:38.060]I'm Sunka Shank, I lost my sight when I was seven
[00:39:41.229]and shortly after that I went to a school for the blind.
[00:39:45.789]And that's where I was introduced to talking to computers.
[00:39:49.789]And that really opened up a whole new world
[00:39:52.008]of opportunities.
[00:39:54.560]I joined Microsoft 10 years ago as a software engineer.
[00:39:57.243]I love making things which improve people's lives
[00:40:00.083]and one of the things I've always dreamt of
[00:40:03.240]since I was at university.
[00:40:05.005]Was this idea of something that could
[00:40:07.016]tell you at any moment what's going on around you.
[00:40:12.448]I think it's a man jumping in the air
[00:40:15.000]doing a trick on a skateboard.
[00:40:18.467]I teamed up with like minded engineers
[00:40:20.990]to make an app which lets you know who
[00:40:23.010]and what is around you.
[00:40:24.288]It's based on top of the Microsoft intelligence API's
[00:40:27.366]which makes it so much easier to make this kind of thing.
[00:40:30.845]The app runs on smart phones but also on the
[00:40:33.766]Pivothead smart glasses.
[00:40:35.488]When you're talking to a bigger group.
[00:40:38.646]Sometimes you can talk and talk
[00:40:40.910]and there's no response and you think
[00:40:42.760]is everyone listening really well or are they half asleep.
[00:40:46.530]And you never know.
[00:40:49.940]I see two faces.
[00:40:51.030]40 year old man with a beard looking surprised.
[00:40:53.526]20 year old woman looking happy.
[00:40:56.486]The app can describe the general age
[00:40:58.768]and general people around me and what they're emotions are
[00:41:02.326]which is incredible.
[00:41:03.680]One of the things that's most useful about the app
[00:41:07.500]is the ability to read out texts.
[00:41:10.368]Hello, good afternoon.
[00:41:12.330]Here's your menu.
[00:41:13.500]Thank you.
[00:41:14.333]I can use the app on my phone to take a picture of the menu
[00:41:16.999]and it's gonna guide me on how to take that photo.
[00:41:21.202]Move camera to the bottom
[00:41:23.290]and way from the document.
[00:41:24.839]And then it will recognize the text.
[00:41:27.022]Read me the headings.
[00:41:28.700]I see appetizers, salads, panini's,
[00:41:31.500]pizza's, pastas.
[00:41:33.623]Years ago this was science fiction.
[00:41:36.242]I never thought it would be something
[00:41:38.330]that you could actually do.
[00:41:39.610]But artificial intelligence is improving
[00:41:42.010]and deliver faster rate.
[00:41:43.690]And I'm really excited to see where we can take this.
[00:41:45.719]Hey.
[00:41:47.059]Hi.
[00:41:48.061]As engineers, we're always standing on
[00:41:49.050]the shoulders of giants.
[00:41:50.430]Building on top of what went before
[00:41:51.917]and in this case we've taken years of research
[00:41:53.901]from Microsoft research to pull this off.
[00:41:55.522]I think it's a young girl
[00:41:57.620]throwing an orange Frisbie in the park.
[00:41:59.820]For me it's about taking that far off dream
[00:42:01.421]and building it one step at a time.
[00:42:03.639]I think this is just the beginning.
[00:42:08.429]Alright, if that isn't inspiring
[00:42:11.260]in what you can do with AI and make someone's life better.
[00:42:13.405]I wanted to show you that this is actually real.
[00:42:16.125]So I'm gonna do a little demo.
[00:42:18.706]We didn't practice this actually
[00:42:20.330]so I'm really hoping it works.
[00:42:21.842]I'm gonna pull up my Seeing AI app.
[00:42:24.210]It's available on your iPhone.
[00:42:27.082]I think there's an android version as well.
[00:42:28.799]And let me see what it tells me here.
[00:42:31.860]What's going on here?
[00:42:38.060]First, Connie near two faces.
[00:42:40.765]Let me see.
[00:42:43.063]One face near top left, six feet.
[00:42:44.100]One face near top left, two faces.
[00:42:46.642]Let me see if I can get this.
[00:42:49.640]One face near top two faces.
[00:42:51.426]Connie near top edge, four feet away.
[00:42:54.098]Connie is near the top edge.
[00:42:56.280]She's four feet away.
[00:42:57.770]But that just told me we've got two faces.
[00:42:59.383]Oh, since I don't do this on women.
[00:43:02.180]I will do the other one on you when it tells you your age.
[00:43:04.525](laughing)
[00:43:07.400]Well, actually I was doing a little bit of it last night
[00:43:09.300]just to kind of see where I was ranking in terms of the age.
[00:43:11.510]And it had me at 34 which I thought was a little bit high
[00:43:13.880]but you know.
[00:43:14.713]I can live with it.
[00:43:16.226](laughing)
[00:43:17.140]So, let's see here.
[00:43:18.060]We are gonna do.
[00:43:20.550]Processing.
[00:43:21.922]48 year old man with brown hair looking happy.
[00:43:25.986]48 year old man with brown hair looking happy.
[00:43:28.322]Nailed it.
[00:43:29.750]Nailed it.
[00:43:31.362]Wow, yes.
[00:43:32.743]That's AI for you, alright.
[00:43:33.576]Let me give you this back.
[00:43:34.743]So, this is working if you want to try it.
[00:43:37.321]Seeing AI, all you have to do is download it
[00:43:40.423]in the app store.
[00:43:41.824]Seeing AI.
[00:43:44.066]That's what the icon looks like.
[00:43:47.061]The branding, you'll see that.
[00:43:49.450]Another great one is the Skype Translator.
[00:43:51.826]Yeah, not only does this help people with captioning.
[00:43:57.435]I imagine it helps people communicate with
[00:44:00.290]each other around the world who don't speak
[00:44:01.550]the same language.
[00:44:03.223]And you could imagine if you have family
[00:44:04.056]and friends in other countries and trying to talk to them.
[00:44:06.157]When maybe it's your mother in law
[00:44:08.743]who doesn't speak the same language you do.
[00:44:10.522]There we go.
[00:44:11.830]I've got people right in the front row
[00:44:13.250]who can now talk to their mother in laws.
[00:44:15.223]Sorry about that but it does really
[00:44:17.084]not only help people with hearing impairments
[00:44:21.623]but also definitely helps people communicate.
[00:44:26.060]So, moving on to one other topic that I
[00:44:30.410]wanted to quickly address today.
[00:44:31.541]Is the environment.
[00:44:33.640]We have a big, big, big challenge here.
[00:44:35.260]We also have a massive opportunity with AI
[00:44:37.222]to solve some of the worlds most depressing challenges.
[00:44:40.285]What we know that we've done with every previous
[00:44:43.070]industrial revolution.
[00:44:44.280]Is we borrowed from the future of the planet.
[00:44:46.045]While humans have enjoyed the progress of the revolution
[00:44:50.882]we've actually taken that at the cost
[00:44:54.162]of our future generations and the cost of the planet.
[00:44:56.343]Right now, we're worried about challenges in the climate.
[00:45:02.503]Climate change.
[00:45:03.580]Ensuring our resilient water supplies.
[00:45:05.741]Feeding what will be 10 billion people quite soon.
[00:45:10.343]All at the same time while we're experiencing
[00:45:13.610]a massive loss of bio diversity.
[00:45:15.282]I found this picture last night of our last white rhino.
[00:45:17.750]The latest example of a loss of bio diversity.
[00:45:20.525]And what is shown.
[00:45:23.303]What is clear is that we don't have enough data
[00:45:25.602]to understand the world around us to make progress.
[00:45:30.373]And so what we need to do is fundamentally
[00:45:33.220]change the way that we monitor model
[00:45:35.862]and manage the environment.
[00:45:37.543]And we do that by using the power
[00:45:39.584]of artificial intelligence on data sources
[00:45:42.626]to help us make this kind of a change.
[00:45:44.445]And this is exactly the sort of change
[00:45:46.226]that we can help at Microsoft because we have AI.
[00:45:47.378]We have software and we have hardware
[00:45:50.504]that can help us do this.
[00:45:52.041]And so that's why we launched a program.
[00:45:54.500]We initially put it out.
[00:45:56.125]It was last July, a two million dollar commitment.
[00:46:00.640]And you can not imagine the number of emails
[00:46:04.276]we received particularly from student type populations.
[00:46:07.261]How excited people were about this program called
[00:46:10.765]AI for Earth.
[00:46:12.003]And so in Paris, in December.
[00:46:14.045]We relaunched the program.
[00:46:16.221]This is a mere six months later
[00:46:17.803]with a 50 million dollar commitment over 5 years.
[00:46:20.184]And in some ways it's not the money in this.
[00:46:22.904]The money is important.
[00:46:24.264]50 million dollars is a drop in the bucket
[00:46:26.830]but what we're doing is the most important thing.
[00:46:28.861]Which is we are using technology to help empower others.
[00:46:31.843]So we're operating at the intersection of
[00:46:35.410]artificial intelligence and sustainability.
[00:46:37.779]And we're working with third parties
[00:46:40.605]to develop new data models to help us
[00:46:44.040]much better understand the world.
[00:46:45.738]So that everyone else can make intelligent decisions
[00:46:48.639]on how they manage resources.
[00:46:50.221]I want to illustrate this for you
[00:46:52.830]to really kind of bring it home actually what you can do.
[00:46:56.765]The power of this type of technology and the environment.
[00:46:59.645]And we're working on the areas of agriculture, water,
[00:47:02.764]bio diversity and climate.
[00:47:04.701]Those are our four areas but when you look at this.
[00:47:06.479]This is one of the very first opportunities
[00:47:08.959]to pursue with AI for Earth.
[00:49:38.866]So, why do I say that it's not really about the money?
[00:49:42.183]Cause what you can see here is that we did one project
[00:49:45.723]and if we did one project and just stopped.
[00:49:48.200]That'd be interesting and great for Chesapeake Bay.
[00:49:51.370]But what we did is we took the information
[00:49:53.770]that came out of that and we now shift
[00:49:55.410]what's called the GOAI Virtual Machine in our technology
[00:49:58.544]that allows anyone to use it.
[00:50:00.080]Anyone can make a precision map to help them
[00:50:01.904]understand the ecosystem around them
[00:50:03.840]and to really pursue conservation in a brand new way
[00:50:06.898]that wasn't possible before.
[00:50:08.960]So you don't have to spend three months
[00:50:10.982]and a million dollars.
[00:50:12.500]I don't know if that's a proper costs
[00:50:13.530]so don't quote me on that.
[00:50:15.302]But it was three months of work.
[00:50:16.950]A lot of work and then they were able to do it
[00:50:18.801]and now you can do it very quickly
[00:50:20.760]using the AI virtual machine in Azure.
[00:50:25.267]So, I hope that what I've expressed to you today
[00:50:30.582]is that we have an amazing opportunity in front of us.
[00:50:34.180]We have an amazing opportunity if we can
[00:50:35.510]connect the country.
[00:50:36.960]We have an amazing opportunity if we can use technology
[00:50:40.379]and particularly things like AI to help us solve
[00:50:43.078]some of the worlds most pressing challenges.
[00:50:45.622]But what we know is that we're not gonna be successful
[00:50:49.040]unless we can move technology forward
[00:50:50.720]and not leave people behind.
[00:50:53.040]Thank you very much.
[00:50:54.459](clapping)
[00:51:01.318]I think we're open for questions.
[00:51:08.982]We're recording.
[00:51:12.079](laughing)
[00:51:13.077]So I'd love you to use the mic.
[00:51:17.460]So I was just curious.
[00:51:19.638]You talked a little bit at the beginning of you talk
[00:51:21.320]about broadband and considering internet access
[00:51:24.600]being basically the same in terms of need as electricity.
[00:51:27.862]Which I would agree.
[00:51:29.542]Without getting too political here.
[00:51:32.502]It's not quite the case right now.
[00:51:34.514]What do you see?
[00:51:36.038]How do you see this going forward in terms of
[00:51:41.302]whether it's the FCC's actions
[00:51:44.113]or just the drive to consider.
[00:51:48.360]The broader drive to consider internet access to be
[00:51:50.620]a pretty essential thing for human beings
[00:51:53.250]in a modern society like ours.
[00:51:54.997]I fundamentally believe that we're gonna get there.
[00:51:57.557]We're gonna get there at some point.
[00:51:59.718]Internet access is gonna be ubiquitous.
[00:52:01.558]It's about how fast we're gonna get there
[00:52:04.070]and are we going to be able to do it fast enough
[00:52:06.060]to not leave vast numbers of people behind.
[00:52:09.120]And so whether the FCC allocates the spectrum or not.
[00:52:12.582]We'll still be successful.
[00:52:14.240]As TV white space is continuing to develop and get better
[00:52:16.059]and today we have two channels that we can use.
[00:52:19.467]Two unlicensed channels.
[00:52:22.175]If we get a third channel that's gonna be fantastic.
[00:52:25.250]That will help us proceed more quickly.
[00:52:26.672]If we don't get a third channel the technology
[00:52:28.630]is gonna continue to advance and we'll be able
[00:52:30.650]to make due with that.
[00:52:31.483]And the reality is there are multiple types of technology
[00:52:33.488]that can help us solve this problem.
[00:52:35.350]Not just TV white spaces.
[00:52:37.160]Cause it's one part of the mix.
[00:52:38.828]But it's a really helpful part of the mix.
[00:52:46.917]I just wanted to say Connie.
[00:52:48.610]I know, I'm trying.
[00:52:51.449]I don't know if you can answer this
[00:52:53.610]cause you're an attorney.
[00:52:55.093]I'm not a farmer either but I'm wondering.
[00:52:58.453]I heard a presentation at Lincoln last year
[00:53:01.186]about a farmer riding in a combine
[00:53:04.668]and having high speed internet access to control things
[00:53:09.731]back on the farm.
[00:53:11.710]Control all kinds of devices while he
[00:53:13.392]or she is in the harvesting machine.
[00:53:17.610]Can TV white space do that or does it take something else?
[00:53:21.669]TV white spaces could do that.
[00:53:23.640]I'll tell you we are doing a project.
[00:53:25.070]I think, I mean I don't know the exact application.
[00:53:26.980]I'm not an engineer but I'll tell you
[00:53:28.000]what I know we can do.
[00:53:30.040]I was just a couple weeks ago up in Michigan
[00:53:31.428]at a project we're doing near.
[00:53:32.949]Now, I'm gonna forget the name of the city.
[00:53:36.069]Northern Michigan, up here they told me.
[00:53:39.013]And what we've done there is we've put
[00:53:42.490]TV white spaces technology on a school bus.
[00:53:44.548]So, we have a tower.
[00:53:46.760]So it's basically like you got a tower
[00:53:48.330]and you've got a base unit up there.
[00:53:49.861]I'm gonna, I'm sure, butcher all the technical terms.
[00:53:52.210]You can jump in and correct me if I'm wrong.
[00:53:53.712]And then you have a receiver on the bus, that antenna.
[00:53:57.083]And I was on the bus with students
[00:54:00.109]who were doing their homework during their bus ride.
[00:54:04.500]So that seems to be very similar to this situation
[00:54:06.352]that you described.
[00:54:07.590]So yes, that's possible.
[00:54:09.152]Right now we can cover.
[00:54:11.550]I think it's about six miles of that bus route.
[00:54:14.306]We need to do more.
[00:54:15.430]We need to equip more buses.
[00:54:17.380]We need to make sure that we have different.
[00:54:19.220]When the bus changes to different areas
[00:54:20.990]we don't loose connection.
[00:54:22.709]These things have a certain range so
[00:54:25.210]if the bus travels out of that.
[00:54:26.650]We've got another one right in range.
[00:54:28.480]But we're making a lot of progress on that.
[00:54:29.740]So I do believe it's possible.
[00:54:30.587]And the farm scenario, I think is really possible.
[00:54:33.420]You know what the distance is you have to cover.
[00:54:35.493]You just make sure you've got enough radio there
[00:54:38.052]and you can weigh in from a technical perspective.
[00:54:41.632]I think absolutely.
[00:54:46.477]Anything else you want to say?
[00:54:47.700]Here, you can just pop into my mic right here.
[00:54:50.030]So the thing is like.
[00:54:52.498]Somebody being in a combine trying to do all these things.
[00:54:55.840]It's kind of a parlor trick.
[00:54:57.240]The bigger issue we have is getting access
[00:54:59.080]out to people's homes.
[00:55:00.135]So, then it's a lot easier to kind of extend.
[00:55:02.637]Running fiber to the home
[00:55:05.159]but you can't run a fiber to the farm equipment.
[00:55:06.570]Right but part of the problem we got is
[00:55:09.095]even in most of these rural areas.
[00:55:10.740]Fiber is so expensive to run
[00:55:12.396]and even compared to the cost of running electricity
[00:55:14.677]back in the day.
[00:55:16.260]It's like that's a terrible comparison
[00:55:18.933]because you can provide usable broadband
[00:55:21.276]with fixed wireless.
[00:55:23.357]That's the most important part of the TV white space.
[00:55:25.757]Now once you've got that out there.
[00:55:27.478]Then you can build a network that covers
[00:55:29.223]around a farm area or something like that.
[00:55:32.258]But the bigger issue we have is getting connectivity
[00:55:35.655]out to people's homes and businesses first.
[00:55:38.557]And then extending it out to those places
[00:55:40.375]where they might need it out in the field.
[00:55:43.340]Cause honestly, I mean.
[00:55:44.395]Somebody that's running the combine
[00:55:46.213]and trying to do five other things.
[00:55:47.220]I know when I was running a tractor
[00:55:49.000]I had enough problems just focusing on keeping it straight
[00:55:50.738]without trying to do five other different things.
[00:55:53.058]I know they do run themselves.
[00:55:57.597]Right, so you know.
[00:56:00.760]All my friends that do that.
[00:56:01.655]They watch a lot of Netflix while they're farming.
[00:56:07.120]They might need access then too.
[00:56:08.190]Yeah, I guess so.
[00:56:09.938]But that's what I see is really being
[00:56:12.818]the big advantage of TV white space.
[00:56:14.637]Like that video that she was showing
[00:56:16.674]out in Virginia where they have all the trees.
[00:56:20.498]That's an area.
[00:56:22.220]Out in West Nebraska we don't have to
[00:56:23.430]worry about that kind of a deal.
[00:56:25.470]We can put stuff on a tower for 15 miles
[00:56:27.015]if there aren't enough trees to block a signal.
[00:56:29.997]But that's a very limited are of the country.
[00:56:33.595]There's a lot of places where the trees are out there
[00:56:36.051]That's what we need to do is to figure out
[00:56:38.200]how to get through the trees first.
[00:56:39.930]And I look at it as like get the wireless out there.
[00:56:42.110]Get as many people connected as possible to start with.
[00:56:44.295]Eventually we can get fiber out there
[00:56:46.855]but if we try to do fiber everywhere.
[00:56:48.514]We're gonna have 10, 15 years where people
[00:56:51.010]aren't gonna have anything for a long time
[00:56:53.040]because it takes a long time to put fiber in.
[00:56:55.272]And wireless you can do it like that compared to fiber.
[00:57:00.112]To put a bit of a finer point on the price tag.
[00:57:02.510]We worked with BCG to do a study on this
[00:57:04.375]and the numbers are directional.
[00:57:06.716]They're not totally exact but
[00:57:09.341]to cover everyone today it was something like 60 billion.
[00:57:12.834]And to use a mix of technologies including
[00:57:16.455]things like TV white spaces.
[00:57:18.135]That could bring the number down
[00:57:19.760]to cover everyone in the country
[00:57:21.710]to something like 10 billion.
[00:57:28.877]What role would a student take in this mission?
[00:57:32.259]Students are great great activist and great advocates.
[00:57:36.339]They're activist to their politicians.
[00:57:38.750]They're advocates to their communities
[00:57:40.670]and so I think students can be a fabulous way
[00:57:42.456]to get the word out.
[00:57:44.179]To get the action behind it.
[00:57:46.220]I mean see what the students have been doing
[00:57:48.020]and all the different things lately in DC.
[00:57:50.217]There are many many things students can do.
[00:57:52.352]So call to action there really would be active.
[00:57:54.456]Understand this is important
[00:57:56.900]and also if you're in a community that needs this.
[00:57:59.219]We need information about that.
[00:58:01.332]I mean that's why we work with local providers mostly
[00:58:04.030]because we don't have that information.
[00:58:05.358]You know, students can help with things like that.
[00:58:11.076]Shelly if I can real quick.
[00:58:14.120]I was especially intrigued with your focus
[00:58:17.088]on the value of the humanities actually growing
[00:58:20.203]with this effort.
[00:58:23.630]If you look at The Rural Futures Institute
[00:58:25.646]mission behind you there.
[00:58:27.770]Building a high touch high tech future for rural.
[00:58:31.630]That's really what we're talking about.
[00:58:33.067]It seems to me that in order for that to happen
[00:58:35.248]it does require education institutions
[00:58:38.425]to take that very seriously.
[00:58:40.966]And to look at developing problem solving
[00:58:44.390]thought processes that indeed capture
[00:58:48.987]both high tech and high touch humanities and technology.
[00:58:53.148]Is that part of Microsoft's strategy?
[00:58:55.590]It appears that it is.
[00:58:58.284]Are there institutions that really are embracing that idea?
[00:59:01.350]Yeah, we do obviously a lot of work with universities
[00:59:04.128]and we talk to universities about this a lot.
[00:59:06.267]It needs to be at the school level.
[00:59:08.380]It needs to be at all levels of education.
[00:59:09.931]We've also called for a hippocratic oath for developers.
[00:59:13.030]Basically that they won't use technology to harm people.
[00:59:16.048]In fact, they use technology to help people.
[00:59:18.251]So things like that.
[00:59:19.680]It's getting going.
[00:59:21.210]I think certainly it's not something that today.
[00:59:23.851]I think in the engineering space today
[00:59:25.520]there aren't a lot of humanities introduced to them.
[00:59:27.690]But we know that we absolutely need it.
[00:59:29.630]And you're absolutely right in terms of
[00:59:31.630]people in the humanities are gonna be much much more needed.
[00:59:33.782]And we can all be really happy that we actually
[00:59:35.931]still will be able to work in technology companies
[00:59:38.468]because it's definitely.
[00:59:40.950]It's a great area to be in.
[00:59:42.708]It's a great area to be in whether you're an engineer
[00:59:44.440]or your in humanities.
[00:59:46.027]So absolutely it's a key priority I think
[00:59:47.790]for all engineering colleges.
[00:59:54.176]Yeah I just wanted you to extrapolate
[00:59:56.700]just a little bit.
[00:59:58.080]In your presentation you talked about
[01:00:01.328]agricultural applications.
[01:00:02.787]Climate and bio diversity, water, etc.
[01:00:05.488]And then we're talking about air band.
[01:00:09.285]And I understand certainly the need to connect rural homes
[01:00:13.560]and so forth.
[01:00:14.393]I completely agree.
[01:00:15.930]I just wondered where those intersect?
[01:00:17.370]So in order to do a lot of the data collection
[01:00:20.743]and gathering they need to do to understand
[01:00:22.810]the world around you.
[01:00:24.346]You need connectivity.
[01:00:26.128]And so that's where they really intersect.
[01:00:28.528]For example, we have a project called Project Premonition.
[01:00:32.706]Which essentially is a hardware piece
[01:00:36.230]that basically takes in mosquitoes to understand
[01:00:39.466]biodiversity and the hardware has sensors in it.
[01:00:42.930]That over the internet sends the data back
[01:00:44.880]so that can then be used and processed
[01:00:47.210]to understand where disease is going to outbreak
[01:00:50.026]but also very very importantly.
[01:00:51.728]What the bio diversity is of the area
[01:00:53.989]because mosquitoes are a very important data point
[01:00:56.469]for what's in the area.
[01:00:59.290]So when you're trying to solve environmental challenges.
[01:01:01.970]If you can understand the area.
[01:01:03.302]Then you can help make solutions
[01:01:05.088]and you need internet access for that.
[01:01:07.749]It makes it much much easier.
[01:01:12.364]Okay, currently urban areas in particular
[01:01:17.610]are required to subsidize rural telecommunications.
[01:01:20.056]Will that be the case also with this and to what extent?
[01:01:24.280]What we do is we work with partners like Matt.
[01:01:28.553]We are helping them with their
[01:01:32.633]capital infrastructure investment.
[01:01:34.617]The rest of the way they get their money.
[01:01:36.470]I mean maybe you can talk to them a little bit.
[01:01:37.913]But certainly not all areas can be affordably covered
[01:01:43.737]without some level of assistance.
[01:01:46.073]And so that's where we come in
[01:01:48.450]and help not only with money but with the technology
[01:01:51.353]and the expertise.
[01:01:52.633]And frankly, our name.
[01:01:54.880]It gets people to pay attention
[01:01:56.290]and so our voice is really important in this.
[01:01:57.890]You want to talk a little bit about.
[01:02:00.116]Sure.
[01:02:01.455]So, I warn you.
[01:02:02.610]I've got a big soap box I stand on
[01:02:04.023]when I talk about some of this stuff.
[01:02:06.015]I've not been a real big believer in
[01:02:09.572]the idea of universal service in the way
[01:02:13.589]that it's been carried out.
[01:02:15.012]And that's because as I said in my earlier in my talk
[01:02:19.695]it seems like when you give the same money
[01:02:22.620]to the same people and get the same results.
[01:02:24.553]That's not really a good way to.
[01:02:26.750]And the results are not what you want.
[01:02:28.617]It's not really a good way to do it.
[01:02:30.612]So, I think to a certain degree
[01:02:32.772]it doesn't hurt that we have maybe a little bit of subsidy
[01:02:36.610]from people that live in urban areas.
[01:02:38.276]Because people who live in urban areas
[01:02:40.650]are also getting a lot of benefits from rural areas
[01:02:42.153]and the things that we do.
[01:02:44.292]As far as like being able to have an inexpensive food supply
[01:02:47.556]and access to a lot of natural resources.
[01:02:50.014]So, I think that it's okay that there's a little bit
[01:02:53.733]but I do feel like the program needs to be set up
[01:02:57.332]so that it rewards and comes up with goals
[01:03:01.732]that are compatible and sustainable.
[01:03:04.570]The last thing I want to see is a situation
[01:03:06.930]where a rural provider gets completely dependent
[01:03:10.612]on the government subsidy.
[01:03:12.175]That's I think a really bad thing.
[01:03:14.633]I've really strived at whatever I can do.
[01:03:17.460]First of all, when I started out
[01:03:18.612]we didn't get any access to any government subsidies.
[01:03:21.236]So, I was never concerned about going to Washington DC
[01:03:24.612]and having them take something away from me.
[01:03:27.530]Cause I never got anything in the first place.
[01:03:29.012]But I was able to build a business without it.
[01:03:31.252]I think that other companies should be able
[01:03:33.460]to build a business without it too.
[01:03:34.951]There are gonna be situations where it does make sense
[01:03:37.670]to provide a certain level of support.
[01:03:38.912]And I do think we want to have relatively
[01:03:41.772]capable situations where.
[01:03:44.612]Somebody said earlier, it will have pretty close
[01:03:47.271]to the same kind of access as somebody who lives
[01:03:49.653]in an urban area.
[01:03:51.513]I think the other thing that happens too is
[01:03:54.335]there are a lot of urban areas to have
[01:03:56.734]bigger connectivity issues than a lot of the rural areas.
[01:04:00.422]So, this isn't just an urban rural type deal.
[01:04:05.008]It's not all focused on rural.
[01:04:07.375]There's a lot of places in urban areas.
[01:04:09.780]We need to figure out how to make internet
[01:04:11.615]be more accessible and more affordable to people there.
[01:04:15.140]And that's one of those things that
[01:04:16.040]I think kind of gets ignored that
[01:04:18.452]we should really be trying to figure out.
[01:04:21.071]So you had mentioned hybrid technology
[01:04:22.810]in the beginning.
[01:04:23.728]I think one of our computer science professors
[01:04:26.095]mentioned about lower orbit satellite.
[01:04:29.055]Is that something that?
[01:04:32.920]Satellite?
[01:04:34.010]Yeah, satellite is also one part of the solution
[01:04:36.210]but it's a part of the solution for a very
[01:04:37.900]very small number of people that live in really
[01:04:39.471]low population density areas.
[01:04:44.351]I think satellite is under one person per square mile
[01:04:48.160]is really when that starts making sense
[01:04:49.580]because of the cost of satellite.
[01:04:50.952]Once you get over that then you start
[01:04:52.735]thinking about things like TV white spaces technology
[01:04:55.151]that has a bigger area that it covers.
[01:04:57.215]Then you have other types of technology
[01:04:59.060]that will cover maybe a smaller radius
[01:05:00.650]and maybe more affordable for that.
[01:05:02.095]But keying all of this driving of the costs
[01:05:04.313]of the hardware down.
[01:05:06.774]Because that's what makes it affordable to people.
[01:05:09.593]And so when we can get a critical mass
[01:05:12.911]of people using something like TV white spaces.
[01:05:15.172]That has a number of benefits.
[01:05:16.671]It drives the cost of the individual unit down.
[01:05:19.033]It also drives advancements in those kinds of technology
[01:05:23.913]because companies will then invest in it.
[01:05:26.111]So that's what we're trying to do is
[01:05:27.810]help spark that through our own investments.
[01:05:31.022]And I also wanted to mention the TV white spaces licensing
[01:05:33.391]that we're doing is royalty free to anyone
[01:05:36.993]including competitors.
[01:05:39.130]So I just wanted to make sure that was clear
[01:05:40.671]that it's not a money making proposition for us.
[01:05:43.330]Anyone can use TV white spaces technology
[01:05:44.772]that Microsoft has patents to.
[01:05:47.800]Hi Shirley.
[01:05:49.600]Hi.
[01:05:50.433]We met earlier.
[01:05:51.890]So I have a question.
[01:05:53.720]You said that the public can get involved
[01:05:55.530]to help make Microsoft advance right at this project.
[01:05:57.325]Specifically how can startups get involved?
[01:06:02.580]What kind of resources, other than supporting you guys?
[01:06:07.480]How do they get involved?
[01:06:08.370]Startups are a great source of opportunity for us.
[01:06:11.963]In the AI for Earth Program particularly that I mentioned.
[01:06:15.485]That program is essentially a grants program.
[01:06:17.483]So we do grants of technology.
[01:06:19.749]Then we provide technical support in education
[01:06:25.783]to our grantees.
[01:06:27.445]And we take some of the most innovative projects
[01:06:29.884]that come through and we really invest deeply.
[01:06:32.710]And that's how the Chesapeake Bay video that you saw.
[01:06:34.949]That's how that was started.
[01:06:37.047]They came in through our grant process
[01:06:38.983]and we thought wow.
[01:06:40.700]Wouldn't it be great if we could help them solve
[01:06:42.740]this mapping problem?
[01:06:43.890]Cause we can then take that.
[01:06:45.530]A solution and we can put it into the technology
[01:06:48.069]so that everyone can use it.
[01:06:49.829]So this is the way that startups really participate in this.
[01:06:52.688]Startups are so great and nimble.
[01:06:54.309]And they come up with great ideas
[01:06:56.848]and they can incubate so much more quickly
[01:06:59.210]than a big company like Microsoft can in many cases.
[01:07:07.206]Hi Shelly, this is a quick
[01:07:09.010]two part question hopefully.
[01:07:10.790]If I can remember both parts.
[01:07:11.830]Sure, the first part.
[01:07:13.540]You had mentioned this Chesapeake Bay.
[01:07:15.265]Here at the campus one of the things
[01:07:18.604]a researcher has been working on is
[01:07:21.123]the one meter imaging with NASA across the United States.
[01:07:27.607]To do that one of the challenges we ran into
[01:07:30.743]is the need for petabytes of storage.
[01:07:33.985]Not only storing that data but then how to
[01:07:37.380]deliver it fast enough to where people
[01:07:40.360]can actually make use of it.
[01:07:41.980]So that's the two part question.
[01:07:43.303]A, how do we deal with the storage problems?
[01:07:46.044]And then B, how do we have the bans width?
[01:07:48.120]Whether it's here on campus or rural
[01:07:50.145]to actually make use that data.
[01:07:53.530]Well I don't know.
[01:07:54.860]I don't that project has a storage challenge with it
[01:07:56.865]although I guess it could.
[01:07:58.508]I'm just not aware of it.
[01:07:59.704]But what you essentially do is you create a trained model
[01:08:02.504]that anyone can use and you call into that with API's.
[01:08:05.945]So the storage isn't taking place locally.
[01:08:07.560]It's really taking place somewhere
[01:08:09.335]in the Cloud on Microsoft servers.
[01:08:12.670]So you're calling into it with a API
[01:08:14.090]which can be pretty quick.
[01:08:15.724]So I don't know really the whole technical answer
[01:08:17.330]to your question.
[01:08:18.285]But the storage situation can be a challenge.
[01:08:22.000]I know that it's certainly something that we've overcome
[01:08:23.850]in most projects that we've been working on.
[01:08:27.505]And then we have another question up here.
[01:08:28.640]I don't think we have an answer to the storage question.
[01:08:30.865]If they can find room for you Facebook pictures.
[01:08:31.860]They can find room for the GIS data.
[01:08:35.447]Well, you must have a lot of Facebook pictures then.
[01:08:38.865](laughing)
[01:08:40.980]I'm gonna get on your Facebook after this.
[01:08:42.545](laughing)
[01:08:44.790]Shelly, as a social scientist
[01:08:46.508]and someone who works in developing students
[01:08:48.444]in that high touch area.
[01:08:50.627]One of the things that I struggle with is
[01:08:53.490]I see a lot of engineering students.
[01:08:54.945]High science students coming into my classroom
[01:08:57.847]where I'm having them sit down and reflect
[01:09:02.759]and talk to each other.
[01:09:04.904]And they have spent so much time in front of a screen
[01:09:07.705]that they're ability to connect with human beings
[01:09:12.268]on a face to face level is limited.
[01:09:15.484]There's a part of me that when you talk on the school bus
[01:09:19.804]it was like ewwwww.
[01:09:21.670]Cause I think that neocortex development in kids.
[01:09:23.687]So I think part of the AI development
[01:09:27.324]and the whole piece is how do we balance
[01:09:31.628]addiction to technology with availability of technology?
[01:09:37.280]Especially for young kids who's brains are still developing.
[01:09:41.060]Thoughts on that.
[01:09:42.045]That's a really great question.
[01:09:43.846]I wouldn't say that my daily experience at Microsoft
[01:09:46.187]reflects anything about working with a lot of engineers
[01:09:48.643]who I talk to everyday.
[01:09:50.748]And they've become definitely socialized.
[01:09:52.748]So, what I would say is that I think
[01:09:56.465]the school bus example is a really great one.
[01:09:59.164]You do worry about that.
[01:10:00.588]Am I gonna get my kid only doing technology.
[01:10:02.119]What I saw on the school bus that I was on
[01:10:05.948]is they were doing like they do everything.
[01:10:08.500]They were multitasking.
[01:10:09.410]They were half paying attention to their computer
[01:10:11.170]and doing their homework.
[01:10:12.003]And they were half talking to their friends.
[01:10:13.600]And I don't know if that's representative
[01:10:15.140]of what it will look like later.
[01:10:16.690]But I really haven't come across a situation
[01:10:18.670]on a school bus anyway.
[01:10:19.720]Where that interaction is stopping
[01:10:21.810]and maybe in some ways it's because.
[01:10:23.203]When you're running a school bus
[01:10:26.380]you're getting kids that live near each other.
[01:10:28.150]Not necessarily kids that have the same interests.
[01:10:30.564]So you're getting that level of diversity
[01:10:34.097]and different styles and relating to different kids
[01:10:36.348]in that scenario.
[01:10:37.580]And I think it really drives home the point
[01:10:40.065]which is how do you integrate these two disciplines
[01:10:42.828]at all levels of education?
[01:10:46.124]And ensure that you're getting that good
[01:10:48.508]cross discussion between humanities and sciences.
[01:10:52.588]So that really everyone gets a
[01:10:55.230]better understanding of each other.
[01:10:56.802]So, I think it's a tough one.
[01:11:02.140]Great, we'll take one more
[01:11:04.268]and then we'll end the show here.
[01:11:07.009]I'm from a small town in Nebraska
[01:11:10.369]and I really like this idea of using artificial intelligence
[01:11:14.108]like the big data collection.
[01:11:15.790]And I know it's kind of something that people.
[01:11:18.510]Especially in small towns in agriculture like talking about.
[01:11:20.748]How do we balance this idea of?
[01:11:22.167]Especially in today's age with privacy.
[01:11:24.108]How do we balance this collection of big data
[01:11:27.810]and it's utilization for the good of society
[01:11:30.450]versus a commercial use?
[01:11:32.026]Or just people worrying about the data
[01:11:33.710]being collected in general.
[01:11:35.720]It's a massive question that we've been dealing with.
[01:11:37.670]Not only in the artificial intelligence space.
[01:11:39.162]I mean everyone has seen the news about Facebook.
[01:11:41.300]It's a big question.
[01:11:43.103]How do we ensure that we're holding people accountable
[01:11:45.663]for what they're doing?
[01:11:47.376]And how do we ensure that there's a regulation
[01:11:49.501]that appropriately incentivizes innovation
[01:11:51.718]but protects people's right?
[01:11:54.617]What I can tell you is what we have been doing
[01:11:56.887]and what we thought really is transparency is absolute key.
[01:11:59.216]And I don't mean just transparency when
[01:12:02.360]your signing your terms of use.
[01:12:03.670]So you go like oh click.
[01:12:05.000]I didn't read that and I signed up to it.
[01:12:06.640]Which you know, clearly is the experience
[01:12:08.630]of a lot of people.
[01:12:09.550]But how do you make sure the people understand
[01:12:11.630]what you're actually doing with their data?
[01:12:13.158]We have regulation that's coming in Europe
[01:12:15.214]that will definitely address this head on
[01:12:17.819]that a lot of people are scrambling to keep up with.
[01:12:20.397]We have about 300 engineers working on that today.
[01:12:23.680]But really the question is not one that's going to go away.
[01:12:28.016]So you think how can you anonymize data
[01:12:30.580]to make sure that you can use it.
[01:12:31.979]How can you use data that's basically
[01:12:33.856]not personally information.
[01:12:35.630]And a lot of the stuff you don't need personal information
[01:12:37.916]to make work.
[01:12:39.950]I mean really personal information.
[01:12:41.179]Bio diversity isn't personal information, right.
[01:12:43.136]So there are a lot of things we can do
[01:12:45.240]without even worrying about that problem.
[01:12:46.680]But when you get into these areas like medicine.
[01:12:48.299]You need to make sure that you're working.
[01:12:51.638]The companies that are working on this
[01:12:53.800]are really signed up to things like theses principles
[01:12:56.096]that we've talked about.
[01:12:58.219]At some point there will be more regulation, we know that.
[01:13:00.675]We're not necessarily against regulation.
[01:13:02.080]But it needs to be the right regulation
[01:13:03.996]that spurs innovation.
[01:13:05.559]So this is not an issue that will go away
[01:13:08.375]with artificial intelligence.
[01:13:10.080]In fact, it will become much much more important.
[01:13:15.770]Thank you Matt.
[01:13:16.660]Thank you Shelly.
[01:13:18.160]One more, one more.
[01:13:20.909](mumbling)
[01:13:24.560]Oh my God.
[01:13:25.900]Are you a block chain expert?
[01:13:27.211]No.
[01:13:28.044]You have zero block chain experts up here.
[01:13:29.739]So this is a really quick answer.
[01:13:32.299]Yes, block chain.
[01:13:35.078]It's a fascinating thing that also offers
[01:13:37.455]the opportunity to really provide great opportunities
[01:13:41.056]in financial transactions.
[01:13:43.536]Make them more secure.
[01:13:45.180]I know that and certainly in other areas like contracting.
[01:13:48.096]But I can't really answer your question.
[01:13:50.331]I just don't know.
[01:13:54.060]So block chain is like the it word right now.
[01:13:57.190]Everybody is all excited about block chain
[01:13:58.940]but all block chain is basically just a secure
[01:14:01.019]way of recording transactions at its core.
[01:14:04.320]Your question, it's a great one.
[01:14:08.256]I serve on Broadband Infrastructure
[01:14:10.859]Technology Advisory Group.
[01:14:12.970]And we're actually working on a paper right now
[01:14:14.970]about data privacy and stuff like that.
[01:14:19.120]And it's scary, it's a giant mess.
[01:14:22.139]Basically our group was focused on
[01:14:25.330]what internet providers can do.
[01:14:26.760]Because a lot of the focus is on.
[01:14:28.617]It was on internet providers snooping on your traffic
[01:14:32.270]and using it to sell advertising and stuff like that.
[01:14:34.336]Internet providers are not the ones you need to worry about.
[01:14:38.720]I think what happened with Facebook
[01:14:41.376]and what's going on is it's not necessarily.
[01:14:44.597]You can see that Facebook didn't necessarily
[01:14:46.910]have a problem with their terms of service.
[01:14:48.336]But the way that the other parties were able to share data.
[01:14:51.243]If you have a smart phone.
[01:14:52.678]About half the apps on there.
[01:14:54.197]You load an app and you have to give it
[01:14:56.410]access to a lot of different things or the app doesn't work.
[01:14:58.557]And we have a legitimate problem
[01:15:01.519]with not having enough control over
[01:15:03.979]how we give that access out.
[01:15:06.139]You know, android phones, whatever type of
[01:15:09.100]smart phone you've got.
[01:15:10.456]Your cell phone provider knows about your location
[01:15:13.339]and a few other things.
[01:15:15.280]But all these apps on your phone
[01:15:17.216]are collecting data constantly.
[01:15:19.120]About where you're at.
[01:15:20.838]About what you look at.
[01:15:22.460]All of these different things
[01:15:23.596]and honestly the conclusion we came to
[01:15:27.580]is if you don't want people to know about it
[01:15:29.550]don't post it anywhere on the internet.
[01:15:31.177]Because it's a problem.
[01:15:33.136]This is something that is gonna continue.
[01:15:34.715]Young people especially are gonna have to
[01:15:37.010]really figure out the solutions
[01:15:38.780]and try and help come up with resolution to this
[01:15:41.070]because it's a deep problem.
[01:15:43.934]And I think ultimately the answer can't be
[01:15:45.320]don't share anything or don't engage.
[01:15:47.310]Because then we can't actually progress
[01:15:49.158]but we have to progress in a way that protects people.
[01:15:53.456]And so that's why there's all these discussions
[01:15:56.939]and all these efforts to really make sure
[01:15:58.699]that we're progressing technology in a way
[01:16:01.600]that protects people.
[01:16:02.956]There's a big Supreme Court case recently with Microsoft
[01:16:06.640]on this issue about accessing data
[01:16:10.203]that was stored in Ireland.
[01:16:11.781]We've certainly been a company that's been
[01:16:13.840]on the leadership end of this discussion.
[01:16:16.486]We've seen our own government three or four times
[01:16:19.740]in the last four years over data access requests.
[01:16:21.401]When you mentioned they may not be the people
[01:16:23.580]you need to be worried about.
[01:16:24.880]The ISP's, there are others and so ensuring that
[01:16:27.062]you're working with a company that's reliable and trusted.
[01:16:31.563]It's incredibly important because people will not
[01:16:34.562]use technology they don't trust.
[01:16:36.097]That's a super huge motivation for companies like Microsoft.
[01:16:40.406]We want to get it right because it's the right thing to do
[01:16:42.966]and we know we have to get it right
[01:16:44.486]because if we don't we're out of business.
[01:16:47.872]Thank you and I think this is just
[01:16:49.560]a great example of the need to pull great minds together
[01:16:52.718]and explore these challenges but also the opportunities
[01:16:55.260]that are really emerging in this next generation economy.
[01:16:58.817]So please join me in thanking Matt and Shelly
[01:17:03.430]for that wonderful Q and A but also the presentations
[01:17:05.910]that they've made today.
[01:17:07.480]Thank you all.
[01:17:08.946](clapping)
[01:17:13.630]And if you're not signed up for The Real Futures newsletter
[01:17:16.120]we encourage you to do that so we can help
[01:17:18.190]you stay informed.
[01:17:19.023]We'll be putting out a lot of material after Shelly's visit.
[01:17:22.401]And just so everyone does know.
[01:17:24.880]She's the General Manager of Technology
[01:17:27.070]and Corporate Responsibility at Microsoft.
[01:17:29.060]So she does wear a lot of hats there
[01:17:31.380]and technology is one aspect that
[01:17:33.262]bringing in the environment around that
[01:17:35.480]and hold people part the social responsibility
[01:17:37.550]is so critically important.
[01:17:39.250]Thank you all for joining us today.
[01:17:40.820]Thank you to the Rake School for hosting us today.
[01:17:43.201]And the way we actually met Shelly
[01:17:45.100]was through these relationships
[01:17:47.140]and these conversations that need to happen.
[01:17:49.415]Chet Schroder and myself were actually sitting
[01:17:51.690]with Susan Fritz, Vice President Provost
[01:17:53.950]to The University of Nebraska and President Boust.
[01:17:56.060]Talking to them about our strategic plan
[01:17:57.733]and our need to create this thriving future.
[01:18:00.511]And it came up in conversation that Microsoft
[01:18:03.954]had just launched their air band initiative.
[01:18:07.000]And we're like, hey but Nebraska is not on the map.
[01:18:08.840]So we would really love to have a conversation
[01:18:11.077]and President Boust at the time said.
[01:18:13.900]Well, you know what?
[01:18:14.733]Let's see what we can do.
[01:18:16.687]He was having a meeting with a lot of tech executives.
[01:18:18.480]And he did and then the Rakes Foundation
[01:18:22.748]actually reached out to Microsoft
[01:18:24.960]and connected us with Shelly.
[01:18:26.350]So we're very thankful for all those relationships
[01:18:28.730]and I think it goes to the power of the collaboration
[01:18:31.229]and relationship building that really needs to happen.
[01:18:33.668]And obviously you both are just tremendous examples
[01:18:36.682]of doing that and doing it well to benefit
[01:18:39.440]the good of people.
[01:18:40.273]Thank you.

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Let’s Connect The World To Change The World!

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