Will America Again Play Catch Up on Tech?

"Regarding your editorial "Breaking Big Tech Bad" (June 6): Success in areas such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing requires critical mass and substantial, sustained financial capital. In the U.S., the major advances in AI and QC are coming from Big Tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Tesla and Amazon. They have the scale and enormous infrastructure for computational hardware and software. As a result, they lead the world in these areas.

Americans should be concerned that antitrust activity may break up Google, Amazon or others. Although these companies need regulatory guidance, sacrificing scale in the name of domestic competition isn't a wise strategy for the global marketplace.

China has larger technology companies like Baidu and Alibaba. Let us not make the mistake we made in breaking up AT&T and Bell Laboratories, home of the transistor. Information science and networking technology began its decline and Huawei became a dominant force in 5G. America must lead and not perpetually be catching up.

Big Tech needs rules of the road, but let us introduce these wisely, and not sacrifice scale unnecessarily. Big isn't necessarily bad, so long as the rules protect the public good.

Em. Prof. Venky Narayanamurti

Chatham, Mass.

Mr. Narayanamurti was founding dean of Harvard's school of engineering and applied sciences." [1]

 

Mr Narayanamurti is wrong. Eventually, the conditions matured for IT to transform the entire economy. If the four big and fat buttocks of big companies squeeze out all the competitors, then we will lag behind not just in 5G, but everywhere else.

 

1. Will America Again Play Catch Up on Tech?
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 16 June 2022: A.16.