Susan Molinari

Transcription

SUSAN MOLINARI: Well, I don't know about you, but I don't think it gets any better than that in terms of inspiration. Thank you all for joining us here for the first ever Solve for X here on Capitol Hill. My name is Susan Molinari. I'm Vice President for Public Policy and Government Relations at Google and a former member of Congress. So these are my two worlds coming together in this room, and I couldn't be more proud. When I began at Google, one thing I learned quickly is that lawmakers and engineers really aren't quite as different as you think. Policy makers are trying to solve big, intractable problems and so are engineers. Engineers are seemingly tackling challenges that have no answers to date and so are our policy makers. All of you here are working in some capacity on issues that could eventually, and should eventually, impact millions, if not billions, of people. Today, we're going to walk you through Google's approach of taking on big, global-scale challenges. You're going to learn, like Google thinks, it's crucial to aim for moonshots, not just 10% solutions, but 10 times that game. We have some of Google's most audacious problem solvers here with you today to walk through our approach and why we think it matters on Capitol Hill at this time. Astro Teller, who you saw in this video, is Google's Captain of Moonshots. Yes, that's his title. That's like you think you've got a pretty good title, don't you, Leader, but he's Captain of Moonshots. He runs Google X, our factory for building big, moonshot ideas that can be brought to reality through science, technology, and a lot of imagination. Astro and the incredible Megan Smith, Vice President of Google X and co-founder of Solve for X, lead the team that's developed Google Glass, self-driving cars, Project Loon, and some of the coolest technology you haven't heard of yet. We're honored to have two of Washington's most respected lawmakers that are going to be here with us today. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is here, and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer is going to be joining us any second. Now, as you know, they both come from different sides of the aisle, but both are known for being problem solvers with big ideas. Congressman, I'm so glad that you could join us today. You have been a real partner with Google when it comes to thinking big, not being afraid of what tomorrow may bring, but in fact being excited about it. And we're really honored and delighted that at a time when there's so much on your plate that you would join us to help us kick this off today. I'm now honored to introduce you to the leader of the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor. [APPLAUSE] ERIC CANTOR: Susan, it's great to be here. And I just want to thank Google, Google x, Solve for X, moonshot thinking, all of it, for coming into this building. It really does almost shock the system when you walk in, and you're given this sort of example of what Raspberry Pi is and what the potential for young kids is with this kind of invention, this kind of technology. When I think about what you're doing, it is all about innovation. And in a way, I listen to what the, Megan, the film said, and it said when you are about moonshot thinking, it really, to me, makes all the other problems that we work on every day, they don't seem trivial, but they seem manageable, right? And we work in a world of problems that, frankly, any given day somebody could tell you we got a solution for, it's just about summoning the will to try and actually accomplish it. Whereas when you're moonshot thinking, you right away know you don't have the answer for it. So it's a great perspective, I think, that you bring to us because it does make what we're doing think like, hey, let's get on with it. Let's go ahead and solve these problems of fiscal imbalances, of disparity of wealth, of all these things that just seem to burden this place and look to the future and to the things like the Wright Brothers looked at, and JFK in terms of the Sputnik race against the Sputnik and others, force this country to do. And it was about forcing the country to think competitively, to think in terms of innovation, and I mean, that you are here forcing that kind of mindset. Moonshot thinking is awesome. So I'm actually going to take this and I'm going to do something, that I'm going to push it in front of people's faces on my team, so we can think moonshot every day. But I want to say this too. I mean, we have been very concerned about access to information, transparency in the House of Representatives. And ever since we've taken the majority, have felt information certainly is power, and we never ever want to stop thinking about how to use that information, how to solve those problems. Moonshot thinking is that, right? When I'm shown the example of the material that you find in space floating around that could provide some answers for us, not only living here but our existence in the universe, it is about search of information and knowledge. And when we took the majority, it was one of the things that was more important than any. Connor Walsh is here with me, which heads up sort of the new media effort with our majority. And we said, open up the treasure trove of information the government is about. And I often-- it's not a Droid, know-- but it is an iPhone here, right? This thing is nothing more to me than a platform for the flow of information. And the technology that Google is about and the other companies in your realm are about is about opening up more sources of information and allowing the ingenuity, and the innovation, and initiative that comes to bear that allows people to use that information for making their life work better every day. And you just turn on here, and you see all the apps that make life easier, that help people figure out problems, whether it's from the Monday and I'm scheduling, to predicting what weather they're going to encounter on their trip, to much more intricate problem solving on here. And that's what we're trying to do with the government and the treasure trove of information it's sitting on. And so what we've done is, initially, we made plenty of data sets, that were otherwise not available, available to software writers, engineers so that they could use that information, put it into whatever application that they had so that the public could be more aware and could use the information that the government sits on. We've also had something called cosponser.gov launched about a year ago. And it's really just a very simple tool, which says to folks across the country, sign on, sign up, and see what you can do about involving yourself in topics of information and of policy initiatives that are underway here and sign your name alongside that. And oh, by the way, it will show up in your social media page, Facebook, LinkedIn, and whatever, and allow your friends to know that you're involved in this effort. And these are the kinds of things that may seem like the government already had done and didn't do. And it's amazing just imagining now, like sort of an app that would come standard on a phone, whether it's the weather app or something that you want to go get a better one that you change, think about if you only had one app that you were given when you bought one of these devices. And that's the way I think about government. We have a lot to do. And I see my friend and colleague Steny Hoyer, the Democratic Whip, has come. And he and I both have sponsored forums such as this to increase transparency and to try and enlist the minds of the likes of you that think in moonshot terms of how we can turn this sort of behemoth federal government into something much more productive for people. And to me, I just think it's allowing that free flow of information and to allow innovators to use that to manipulate, in a good way, that information for the better use and betterment of people every day. So again, I thank you. I thank Google, and Google X, Solve for X, the whole project, for the inspiration. And we'll be watching and hopefully learning together. SUSAN MOLINARI: Thank you. ERIC CANTOR: So thank you very much. SUSAN MOLINARI: Appreciate it. [APPLAUSE] SUSAN MOLINARI: Thank you so much, Leader. And without further ado, we want to welcome and thank again-- we said a lot of nice things before you walked in here, Mr. Whip, so I won't repeat them. STENY HOYER: [INAUDIBLE]. SUSAN MOLINARI: But I'm on-- OK. He's a leader, a dear friend, has been out to Google. Has been just really somebody that I was given the great privilege to work with during my time and still consider him a great friend and a leader of this institution, the Democrat Minority Whip, Steny Hoyer. STENY HOYER: Thank you. [APPLAUSE] STENY HOYER: Thank you very much. Got all sorts of microphones here. Am I streaming? All right. SUSAN MOLINARI: No. STENY HOYER: Forgive me. [LAUGHTER] STENY HOYER: I am pleased to be here. I'm sorry I didn't hear all of what Eric had to say. I heard him just at the very end about this extraordinary app that you're going to create that will make government work better. [LAUGHTER] STENY HOYER: Thank you very much for that. The American public will be very excited about that app, and they will all want it on their phones because they want government to work better. Government's not working very well, in case you hadn't noticed. And if you hadn't noticed, you haven't been awake for the last couple of years. But in any event, what an exciting effort this is. And as I look around the room, I think to myself, gee, I wish I was smart as these people are. I wish I had as much innovative and out-of-the-box kind of thinking that they have. And when I go to Google or I go to one of these other companies-- of course, none are like Google. Google is far ahead of everybody else, right, Susan? SUSAN MOLINARI: Yes, sir. [INAUDIBLE] STENY HOYER: It says right here that Google is way ahead. And I see all of you sitting around with your laptops and sitting in the park, sitting in the lunchroom, sitting at the counter or someplace, where you're 150 feet from food, which is, I think-- SUSAN MOLINARI: [INAUDIBLE]. STENY HOYER: --an interesting-- that's right. That seems to be a given in your business. Maybe food helps you think. I guess, in a real respect, food makes us all think better, doesn't it? But the fact of the matter is, you have a psychology of creation, a psychology of out of the box, a psychology of what can we imagine, and then make it be reality. And that is, of course, the kind of thinking we need. I'm not streaming correctly? FEMALE SPEAKER: No, you're good. STENY HOYER: I'm streaming too correctly. I'm solving for x. At any event, I heard Eric mention something about John Kennedy's efforts. John Kennedy was the first president I voted for, so I'm about twice as old as all of you in this room. And John Kennedy was someone who-- as Robert Kennedy used to say when he was running for president, he said, some men see things as they are and say, why? I dream things that never were and ask, why not? And that's really what you're doing. And you're Buck Rogers. I don't even know if you're old enough to know who Buck Rogers is. I kind of feel like, perhaps, you're not. But there was "Buck Rogers in the 21st Century." And of course, we thought the 21st century was way out there, and we'd be traveling from world to world, and we'd be doing all sorts of things. And it was really amazing because, frankly, we're doing some things that Buck Rogers never thought about. And as Eric brought his iPad-- sorry about that-- SUSAN MOLINARI: It's OK. STENY HOYER: --out of his belt, and I used to visit, some 25 years ago, this. It was a room bigger than this one, much bigger than this one, and it could not do half of what this does. And to think of the almost speed of light that we are moving in with respect to innovation, and invention, and development of technology, which is what you're going to be brainstorming about. And brainstorming now, when I first went on the Labor Health Committee, it oversaw, and still oversees, the National Institutes of Health. And one of the first hearings that I participated in-- and this was before most of you were born, 1981, '82, I guess it was '83. SUSAN MOLINARI: Yeah, I wasn't born yet. [INAUDIBLE]. STENY HOYER: January, '83. I know Susan wasn't born, and I think some of the rest of you weren't born. January of '83. The National Library of Medicine came before us and talked about all the information that they had stored in the library, which is just down the road in Bethesda. And I said to them, wouldn't this be wonderful if the doctor in a rural area could access that information? SUSAN MOLINARI: Wow. STENY HOYER: January of '83. Now, of course, every doctor has on their desk their personal computer. They can do exactly that. In some 30 plus years. Isn't that amazing? And that's what you're talking about. And I can't even imagine what you're going to be talking about and creating and making reality 10 years from now. Because what has happened is we have magnified your ability to network, and the brain power of people throughout the world has been linked together. And that is an extraordinary empowerment of our 21st century. First of all, you can immediately say, these things don't work. Why do I know that? Because somebody's already tried it and told me it doesn't work. So I can go down a path that does work, whether it's basic research, invention, whatever it might be. So this is an extraordinary, exciting effort. And I don't think there's anybody in the world who has better talent, more focused, and more empowered to think in an extraordinarily broad sense than you at Google have been empowered to do. And so I want to congratulate you and say that my grandchildren look forward to your successes. SUSAN MOLINARI: That's nice. STENY HOYER: Actually, my children look forward to your successes, and because I've told you how old I am, I suppose my two great-grandchildren. SUSAN MOLINARI: Yeah, yeah. Nice. STENY HOYER: My two great-grandchildren, you're going to make their lives extraordinarily different from mine. I tell this. This is, you know, my generation. When I first started driving a car, no car in America had anything but a roll-up window. None of you can imagine ever buying a car with a roll-up window. Think of having to reach over to the back seat to roll up a window, that then only went halfway up or down. SUSAN MOLINARI: That's right. STENY HOYER: Nobody would think about it. But I thought to myself, you know, when power windows came out, my future father-in-law-- because my parents still have roll-up windows in their car. I know this sounds like, golly dang. Had they invented the wheel by the time you were born? Now we wouldn't think about a car without power windows or, for that matter, power steering. They're just a given now. But when they came out, they were really a big innovation. And you thought, why do you need that? That thing, just roll up the window. Why do I have to pay extra for that? And the reason is, of course, because it makes life better. Indeed, more safe, so that somebody driving a car can make sure their back windows are up without having to lean over if somebody's walking towards the car or something. It's just little things, but they're huge things as well. And it's hard for me to imagine, but I know it's not for you, of what is going to be 10, 20, 30 years from now, or perhaps 10 hours, or 10 days, or 10 months from now. That's how fast things are moving. And they are moving because of people like you and, indeed, because of you, each of you. Because my presumption is, you would not be in this room if you weren't somebody with an extraordinary mind, facile, farseeing, unconstrained by restraints imposed by what we have done. Because as Robert Kennedy said, some men see things as they are and ask, why? And I dream things that never were and ask, why not? That's what you're doing. That's what you're doing. And it will make an extraordinary difference for our society. Now, I'm a big "make it in America" person. I'm a big "make it in America" person because Andrew Liveris, Andrew Grove-- I know you know the name Andy Grove. I know we don't mention the company. But the fact of the matter is they both have a proposition that unless we take to scale those things which you're going to come up with, the ideas you're going to have, and ultimately, you want to make them commercial and available to people. For after all, an idea that is just closely held is not going to be of much value to our society. But an idea that is taken to commercial scale is something that will advantage all of us. And we need to be very careful that, as we take things to scale, we take them to scale here in America. Why? Because if we don't, ultimately, Andy Grove-- you know that name-- Andrew Liveris, who as you may know is the president and CEO chairman of the board of Dow Chemical, they are concerned that if we don't take things to scale that we invent and [INAUDIBLE] development, then all of you will be meeting someplace else, in China, in Germany, in some other country, in Brazil. Because that's where they will be taking things to scale that you invent, envision, develop, and innovate with. So I want to thank you for being here. I want to thank you for making America what it is, the invention, innovation capital of the world. Almost all of the electronics have been invented and innovated here, but not all of them are being made here. Now, that's not your focus. I understand that. Your focus is coming up with the ideas, coming up with the future, and the future will be better because of all of you. So I'm very pleased to be here with you and with my good, dear friend, Susan Molinari. We need more people in the Congress like Susan Molinari. Well, I'm going to say it. Susan Molinari is someone who came to Congress to solve problems, not to make political points, and she did it extraordinarily well. And I'm sorry that she's not still with us because we need people in our society who are not locked into "this is the way we've always done it," which is what you're about. Or politicians-- this is the way we do it. This is the way you do it. And never the twain shall meet. That's not good for our country. And I presume most of you are citizens, and maybe some of you are not. But by the way, 40% of America's Nobel Prize winners were born overseas, which is one reason why your company is so supportive of comprehensive immigration reform. That's not necessarily an idea we need to invent. The Senate's already passed it. Hopefully, we will do the same so that we will be able to recruit to your ranks the most facile, capable brains in the world who are attracted to come here. And we need to make sure that they can not only come here, but that they can stay here and work with all of us. Thank you very much. SUSAN MOLINARI: Thank you so much. [APPLAUSE] SUSAN MOLINARI: Astro? And now, ladies and gentlemen, the Captain of Moonshots at Google, Astro Teller and Megan Smith. ASTRO TELLER: Thanks. That was wonderful. STENY HOYER: I'm going to run out. MEGAN SMITH: Thank you. STENY HOYER: Thank you very much for what you're doing. MEGAN SMITH: Thanks for being here. STENY HOYER: Appreciate it. Great. MEGAN SMITH: We're starting off with manufacturing in America. So-- STENY HOYER: Are you? MEGAN SMITH: --you're going to like what we're doing. STENY HOYER: [INAUDIBLE]. ASTRO TELLER: Oh, yeah! First moonshot of the day! That was awesome. All right. We're going to keep this fairly short. STENY HOYER: [INAUDIBLE] run away. ASTRO TELLER: Just to reward you for that, we're going to keep this short.