On Tuesday night, U.S. President Barrack Obama spoke at length about the progress made and new challenges faced by the country in his 7th and final State of the Union (SOTU) address. The President spoke on numerous topics, ranging from the U.S.' military industrial complex to contemporary political partisanship, while the subject of technology development played a particularly significant role in his vision for a new America.
This all played out in front of a lively crowd of lawmakers, surrounded in applause, as the tech angle was only further reinforced by the First Lady's invitation of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as an honorary guest.
Virginia Senator Mark Warner, formerly a venture capitalist who invested in a number of telecommunications giants, praised the speech, "twenty-first century innovation and technology is disrupting and transforming every aspect of our lives, from the way Americans work to the security threats we are forced to confront ... we must seize the opportunities and confront the challenges of this new economy in order to make it work better for more people in Virginia and across the country."
Within the speech's first few minutes, Obama mentioned the need to restructure early public education to include courses related to software coding. But it didn't stop there. The President, with a steady eye on the camera lens and an underlying tone mixed somewhere between confidence and ridicule for his critics, repeatedly mentioned the strength of and necessity for domestic "innovation."
Like with any State of the Union, specific policy recommendations appeared absent last night and generalities played frequently. What we did see, however, was an interesting and deliberate focus on various, prominent tech industry related topics and developments. And that inclusion, during a final and personal State of the Union for President Obama, may be indicative of how he hopes to see his legacy remembered; as an innovator first and foremost.
Here's 3 tech-centric topics Obama talked about last night at SOTU 2016:
Clean Energy
In September, Obama announced a series of initiatives, totaling roughly $120 million, aimed at developing more solar and clean energy facilities across the U.S., The Hill reported. The bulk of that funding went to the Department of Energy, to disseminate into the appropriate programs. The action will reportedly help build solar plants in 24 states. Last night, following the announcement less than 5 months prior, Obama mentioned once again the need to focus on renewable energy sources:
"Seven years ago, we made the single biggest investment in clean energy in our history. Here are the results. In fields from Iowa to Texas, wind power is now cheaper than dirtier, conventional power. On rooftops from Arizona to New York, solar is saving Americans tens of millions of dollars a year on their energy bills, and employs more Americans than coal?—?in jobs that pay better than average. We’re taking steps to give homeowners the freedom to generate and store their own energy?—?something environmentalists and Tea Partiers have teamed up to support. Meanwhile, we’ve cut our imports of foreign oil by nearly sixty percent, and cut carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth."
Space Travel
The topic of space exploration and discovery was introduced in the speech only to be preceded by a curious mention concerning the U.S.' "best corporate citizens" — an apparent reference aimed at citizens like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, who each lead private space transportation companies. Interestingly, Obama met with Musk and toured the SpaceX facility in early 2015. And it wouldn't be the first time the President fawned over the innovation acumen of Musk, evident by his last State of the Union address where Tesla was mentioned by name.
"In fact, many of our best corporate citizens are also our most creative. This brings me to the second big question we have to answer as a country: how do we reignite that spirit of innovation to meet our biggest challenges? Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny Sputnik was up there. We didn’t argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget. We built a space program almost overnight, and twelve years later, we were walking on the moon."
Small business, technology and startups
Throughout the night, the president spoke about the general influence that emerging technology has had not just in America but across the globe. At times, this conversation leaned on the negative — noting the ability shown by terrorist organizations to recruit "an ocean away" via social media and the disruptive market changes catalyzed by "gig economy" companies — but largely the concentration was positive. Near the speech's start, he looked into the crowd and asked, rhetorically: "how do we make technology work for us, and not against us."
"We’ve launched next-generation manufacturing hubs, and online tools that give an entrepreneur everything he or she needs to start a business in a single day ... In this new economy, workers and startups and small businesses need more of a voice, not less. The rules should work for them. And this year I plan to lift up the many businesses who've figured out that doing right by their workers ends up being good for their shareholders, their customers, and their communities, so that we can spread those best practices across America."
In this context, Obama spoke about startups and small business in contrast to big banks, big oil and hedge funds who he said "make their own rules at the expense of everyone else." He also promised to adjust "outdated regulations that need to be changed." It unclear what this final line will translate into on the policy side, if at all during 2016.
