In the five years since Joseph Williams advised Gov. Jay Inslee on tech policy as the state’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Sector Lead, a global pandemic upended work and home lives, artificial intelligence smartened up, and tech sector jobs in Washington — which account for 9% of the state’s workforce and nearly 22% of the state’s economy — grew by 33%.
Now, after a stint leading the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Seattle office and a turn at starting a cybersecurity consulting firm, Williams is making the return to public service. For Inslee’s last year in office — and maybe beyond, depending on who becomes the next governor — Williams will fill his own shoes as the ICT lead once again.
But, the landscape is different from when he held the job from 2016 to 2019. The governors’ priorities and the ever-evolving innovative tech space has changed.
What will Williams focus on? He has five big ideas: tapping into semiconductor federal funding, building up the blockchain economy, and establishing Seattle as a tech hub for AI, quantum computing, and cybersecurity.
As ICT lead, Williams’ job has two main roles. First, he must advise the governor on policy issues of the day amid a sea of tech and political lobbyist voices.
“The idea is to keep balance,” Williams said. “The governor is really focused on how we balance the needs for affordable housing, for equity, but the fact that we also need to drive industry growth.”
That’s the other part of Williams’ job: economic development. He has five different economic development focus areas which he’ll pursue in Inslee’s last term, and potentially, beyond.
CHIPS Act money
According to Williams, he was mainly hired to pursue the $52 billion in funding available from the CHIPS and Science Act for the domestic production of semiconductors, or chips, passed in 2022. Williams described this funding as a “big pool of money we’re not taking advantage of.”
One of his ideas is to work with Washington tribes who he said have been “very poorly represented” in the CHIPS Act conversation.
“It would be good to engage with the tribes here to see if they want to get involved, how they want to get involved, that sort of thing,” Williams said.
How could tribes benefit from semiconductor technology? Williams thinks there’s a way to draw up a deal that could establish a fabrication facility using tribal land, water, and power while economically benefiting the tribes.
He still needs to work things out with the tribes, however, having only spoken to them once.
Tapping into this available money and growing the semiconductor space in Washington was the main lure for Williams when it came to signing on to the ICT lead job.
“[This work] is hard and it has a purpose,” Williams said. “If we win at this, it will improve a sector of the economy that doesn’t exist, really, or isn’t very mature, and it will potentially benefit whatever local community these things end up in.”
What’s the deal with blockchain?
Williams needs to explore blockchain in Washington. Last legislative session, lawmakers asked for a report on “potential uses and impacts of blockchain technology” in the state. According to Williams, that report isn’t done. Not only that, but he’s not even clear what they meant by “blockchain.”
“When a lot of people say blockchain, what they really mean is cryptocurrency,” Williams said. “And, I haven’t had time yet to find out what the legislature meant. Did they want a report on blockchain as in the distributed ledger technology, or did they want to really know what the cryptocurrency environment for the state of Washington is?”
He’ll puzzle that out soon.
An AI tech hub
Many investment dollars that once went to blockchain are now flowing to AI, an aside which brings Williams to his third priority: making Seattle an AI hub.
The landscape in and around Seattle with the University of Washington, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Apple, all with their AI and machine-learning labs, is booming with AI innovation — but region has been left out of the national narrative on AI epicenters.
“We could do a lot more in this space,” Williams said. “We could be attracting investment capital from all over the world.”
Why not brand Seattle as “AI Central,” and attract more talent from out of state while growing more in-state talent? Williams would like to, but it’s easier said than done. Housing pressure would increase. Cost of living, with more high-paid tech jobs, would certainly go up.
“It’s not an ‘everyone wins’ proposition,” Williams said, “so, you have to weigh what everyone wants.”
Getting ahead on quantum
While on the subject of tech hubs, Williams proposed Seattle could also be the home for quantum computing, a new technology which could take two decades to develop.
Countries all over the world are investing in quantum research and the Seattle area is home to a large R&D center for one of the buzzy new startups. Williams wants to expand on that.
Quantum computing will also revolutionize the chemicals industry, Williams said. He believes that’s where Washington could excel. There are investment dollars Washington could tap into.
“It’s a quantum race,” he said. “The question becomes, ‘How are we as the state of Washington taking advantage of this?’”
Cybersecurity
All of these new technologies breed cybersecurity issues.
Recently, across the state, cyberattacks plagued hospitals and hackers stole hundreds of millions in unemployment money. Individuals can lose their identities to bad actors.
AI advancements will make these problems worse as hacking becomes not only automatic, but intelligent, Williams said.
He wants to grow the cybersecurity space in Seattle. The Biden administration has funds for cybersecurity, he said.
“I’m going to try to pull all the stakeholders together and build an ask,” Williams said.
All of these things are a way toward continued economic prosperity for Washington state, in Williams’ view. Part of his job is looking ahead to make sure the state stays ahead and can adapt to changes in tech.
“You’ve got to keep at the cutting edge of innovation to continue to attract the people who want to solve the more interesting problems,” Williams said.
In reference to a programming language he sees as ancient and dusty, Williams said: “We’re not going to build a COLBOL tech hub here. Who wants to go do COLBOL?”
However, innovation cannot be done in a vacuum. Flashy, sexy technology could drive our economy in one direction, but it could just as easily leave others out of the equation.
“If we put together a proposal for these hubs, we’re going to have to answer the equity, social justice, and housing impacts of what we’re doing,” Williams said. “You can’t just drive for the money.”
