The U.S. National Science and Technology Council (NSTC)[1] recently published an updated list of critical and emerging technologies (CETs) as part of an ongoing effort to identify advanced technologies that are potentially significant to U.S. national security. We previously summarized the February 2022 list of CETs from the NSTC here.
The updated list covers the following CETs:
- Advanced Computing
- Advanced Engineering Materials
- Advanced Gas Turbine Engine Technologies
- Advanced and Networked Sensing and Signature Management
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Artificial Intelligence
- Biotechnologies
- Clean Energy Generation and Storage
- Data Privacy, Data Security, and Cybersecurity Technologies
- Directed Energy
- Highly Automated, Autonomous, and Uncrewed Systems (UxS), and Robotics
- Human-Machine Interfaces
- Hypersonics
- Integrated Communication and Networking Technologies
- Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Technologies
- Quantum Information and Enabling Technologies
- Semiconductors and Microelectronics
- Space Technologies and Systems
In the updated list, as set forth below, the NSTC added two new CETs, changed the description and scope of three CETs included in the previous February 2022 list of CETs, and removed two CETs. In one case, the NSTC folded one of the 2022 CETS—“Financial Technologies”—into a new, broader “Data Privacy, Data Security, and Cybersecurity Technologies” CET.
Revised CETs:
- “Renewable Energy Generation and Storage” revised to “Clean Energy Generation and Storage”
- “Communication and Networking Technologies” revised to “Integrated Communication and Networking Technologies”
- “Autonomous Systems and Robotics” revised to “Highly Automated, Autonomous, and Uncrewed Systems (UxS), and Robotics”
New CETs:
- “Data Privacy, Data Security, and Cybersecurity Technologies”
- “Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Technologies”
Removed CETs:
- “Advanced Nuclear Energy Technologies”
- “Networked Sensors and Sensing”
The addition of the “Data Privacy, Data Security, and Cybersecurity Technologies” CET appears to reflect growing public concern regarding data privacy.[2]
Although the updated list of CETs does not automatically impose export controls on the identified technologies, it may foreshadow the types of technologies that could become subject to U.S. export controls in the future.[3] Such technologies also likely would be considered critical technologies under the regulations administered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Foreign investments into U.S. businesses that engage in covered activities with or involving such technologies could trigger a mandatory CFIUS notification.
[1] “The NSTC is the principal means by which the Executive Branch coordinates science and technology policy across the federal research and development enterprise. A primary objective of the NSTC is to ensure that science and technology policy decisions and programs are consistent with the President’s stated goals.” See https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Critical-and-Emerging-Technologies-List-2024-Update.pdf.
[2] For example, bills pushing for a federal data privacy and protection act have been introduced, hearings held, and Big Tech CEOs called to testify before Congress over the past 15 months. Specifically, on December 30, 2022, U.S. Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ-6) introduced H.R.8152 – American Data Privacy and Protection Act (see https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/8152); on April 27, 2023, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce held a hearing titled “Addressing America’s Data Privacy Shortfalls: How a National Standard Fills Gaps to Protect Americans’ Personal Information” (see https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/energy-and-commerce-leaders-announce-hearing-on-guaranteeing-data-privacy-protections-online); and on January 31, 2024, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee elicited testimony from the CEOs of Discord, Meta, Snap, TikTok, and X (formerly known as Twitter) on children’s social media safety (see https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/31/technology/child-safety-senate-hearing).
[3] Following the NSTC’s publication of its 2022 list of CETs, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a rule imposing export controls on additional technologies that fell within some of the categories in the NSTC’s 2022 list. See 15 CFR Parts 772 and 774, “Implementation of Certain 2021 Wassenaar Arrangement Decisions on Four Section 1758 Technologies,” available athttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2022-08-15/pdf/2022-17125.pdf.