Office of the Chief Technology Officer

The mission of the Office of the U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO), currently led by U.S. CTO Megan Smith, is to help the President and the Administration harness the power of technology, data, and innovation to advance the future of our Nation. The CTO team helps shape Federal policies, initiatives, capacity, and investments that support this mission, while also working to anticipate and guard against the consequences that can accompany new discoveries and technologies. In the 21^st Century, a lot of policy is intimately connected with technology, especially digitally networked technologies. The Office of the CTO is part of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the U.S. CTO also serves as an Assistant to the President.

In the 21st Century, a lot of policy is intimately connected with technology, especially digitally networked technologies. Important capability comes from adding technologists -- or TQ as in “tech quotient” - to the table. Each policy team is strengthened when it is cross-functional and includes technologists, just as it should include economists, lawyers, managers, and scientists. Excluding one of those disciplines can lead to sub-optimal outcomes.

The Office of the CTO focuses on three primary areas, accomplishing all work in deep collaboration with other Executive Office of the President (EOP), agency, and external colleagues, consistent with law:

• Catalyze Effective Public Policy: The CTO Team catalyzes the development of public policy that recognizes technological advances and adds state-of-the-art technology talent to the table to deliver the best results on behalf of the American people. The Office also helps to ensure that technologists, scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs in the United States are able to reach their full potential and unlock new, groundbreaking technologies and discoveries for generations to come. Top areas of work within this policy area include:
  • TQ + Public Policy (including the Tech Policy Task Force)
  • The Future of Artificial Intelligence
  • Big data, privacy, and civil rights
  • Autonomous vehicles and vehicle-to-vehicle (v2v) communication
  • Data Portability
  • The Precision Medicine Initiative
  • Spectrum and Telecomms
  • Intellectual property and patents

• Build Government Capacity through Policy: Making government more effective for and with the public. To ensure an open, digital, and data-driven government, the Office of the CTO works closely with other Federal offices and teams to embed 21^st century tools, teams, and practices in government operations; modernize policies; recruit tech talent for “tours of duty”; and build capacity in areas such as data science, open government,  open data, and other new approaches for solving challenges including policy options for uprading service delivery. Top areas of work within this policy area include:
  • Policy and capacity building work to ensure the upgrade to a modern digital government, including: The United States Digital Service (USDS) and GSA Tech Transofrmation Services (18F and Presidential Innovation Fellows)
  • The United States Open Government National Action Plans
  • The Data-Driven Justice Initiative
  • The Police Data Initiative
  • The Innovation for Disaster Response and Recovery Initiative
  • Diversity of the Federal Workforce (migitigating unconsious bias and action steps)

• Build National Capacity through Policy: Empowering America’s most important asset – its people; and catalyzing the use of new methods to help government better engage more Americans to solve our hardest challenges together. The Office of the CTO supports a number of Administration initiatives to this end, including efforts to broaden entrepreneurial participation, expand STEM inclusion and tackle unconscious bias, especially in family and children’s media; eliminate connectivity deserts—places where broadband internet connectivity is not available—at home and abroad; and engage local tech and innovation communities through place-based activities such as coding boot camps, technology meet-ups, maker spaces, robotics and other innovation festivals, entrepreneurship programs, and start-up incubators. To unleash the creativity and leverage the capacity of all individuals and communities across the United States, we must increase the availability, accessibility, and attractiveness of study, work, and entrepreneurial opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and other areas of innovation to many more citizens. Top areas of work within this policy area include:
  • Computer Science for All
  • TechHire (ecosystem for rapid hiring in months not years)
  • Inclusive Entrepreneurship
  • Image of Stem
  • Disaster Response Innovation
  • Broadband and Internet Connectivity
  • The Opportunity Project
  • "Try This at Home" local and place-based initiatives