Today, the United States struggles with identifying and prioritizing the plethora of potential vulnerabilities to national security posed by emerging technologies. Emerging technologies are often confused with emerging threats, but the two categorizations are not synonymous. Identifying which emerging technologies indeed constitute emerging threats can better prepare society to take the appropriate actions to mitigate hazards and possibly introduce governance measures that ensure better control over their development. The participants in the workshop described in this paper found that social, cultural, political, economic, and other factors are what make emerging technologies emerging threats. The confusion often has its roots in a “hype cycle” that stresses the dangers of an emerging technology while ignoring the various forms of expertise and resources (personnel and otherwise) needed to implement it. Denying bad actors important technical expertise or tacit knowledge plays an important role in denying them access to emerging technologies that may pose a threat to society.Today, the United States struggles with identifying and prioritizing the plethora of potential vulnerabilities to national security posed by emerging technologies. Emerging technologies are often confused with emerging threats, but the two categorizations are not synonymous. Identifying which emerging technologies indeed constitute emerging threats can better prepare society to take the appropriate actions to mitigate hazards and possibly introduce governance measures that ensure better control over their development. The participants in the workshop described in this paper found that social, cultural, political, economic, and other factors are what make emerging technologies emerging threats. The confusion often has its roots in a “hype cycle” that stresses the dangers of an emerging technology while ignoring the various forms of expertise and resources (personnel and otherwise) needed to implement it. Denying bad actors important technical expertise or tacit knowledge plays an important role in denying them access to emerging technologies that may pose a threat to society.
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