I have always been interested in the power of technology - what it can do, what it does do, what it should do.
I entered my undergraduate studies bending towards the first question - curious to learn more about what technology can do. I built applications to analyze real-world datasets, but the more I built and learned what technology could do, the less I was interested in the building process. I was convinced technology could do many amazing and terrifying things, and multitudes of brilliant people were already working in this space. Instead, I was fascinated by what happens after you build a system and how technology is applied to real-world problems.
Cybersecurity seemed like a natural fit as it is a field where many critical systems were already built, and emerging technical capabilities were being applied to both protect and attack said critical systems. Hence, I pursued a position at an international cybersecurity company working to validate the world’s information and make it universally reliable. Through my job, I had a front-row seat to numerous vulnerabilities in information technology infrastructures across corporate, government, and military forces that black hat hackers can exploit to compromise a system. More importantly, I learned how incident responders could recover the affected system to full functionality before service was entirely interrupted. I enjoyed seeing how some technologies are applied to both create and remedy real-world problems, and through a deep reflection of this duality, I began to build a mental model for what technology should do.
An opportunity arose to join a new technology innovation policy group being developed by a philanthropic initiative, and I saw a chance to share, expand, refine, and implement my growing mental model for what technology should do, so I was sold. I joined the group and immediately prompted conversation around identifying the technologies that had widespread applications across multiple disciplines and were already being deployed to solve real-world problems. The team unanimously agreed artificial intelligence was the technology we should focus on, and thus, we created a proactive policy agenda.
At Plaintext Group, I researched artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States and how it could be strengthened. I investigated the underlying data that powers artificial intelligence systems and developers’ access to the supply of such data. I spoke with federal employees tasked with figuring out artificial intelligence deployment plans for their agency, and I listened to their pain points as they embarked on such a task. Throughout all of this work, I had the opportunity to interact with various types of federal civil servants who were experts in their domain and saw the power of technology to help advance the mission of their branch of government. I was convinced this is what technology should do - help the government deliver 21st-century services to the people.
By luck, fate, or destiny, my colleague was a TechCongress alumnus. She spoke about the program and its mission to build a 21st-century government with technology talent. After reading more about TechCongress, its current fellows, and their alumni, it was clear this community was making an outsized impact on technology policy, and I needed to join.
As fun as it was to work on technology policy from the outside, TechCongress allowed me to step up and be part of the next wave of technology researchers, thinkers, practitioners, and activists who implore Congress to think critically about how technology can be used not only to serve communities and foster innovation in every business sector but, more importantly how it should be designed to protect the same communities from unintended harms and keep businesses and government entities accountable for infringements on constitutional rights.
Thus I applied, and when I received notification of my acceptance into the 2022 summer cohort, it was an easy decision. I am ecstatic to join the small but mighty community of technologists helping the Hill meet the needs of a 21st-century society amidst the fourth industrial revolution, and I hope more technologists will answer the call to action by the time the winter 2023 application goes live!
Lacey is serving with the House Energy and Commerce Committee and supporting issues related to broadband access, cybersecurity, data privacy, future of transportation, and blockchain.