By Kirsten Grind
SAN FRANCISCO -- A heralded effort to bring together Silicon
Valley tech giants, investors and the White House on tools to fight
the coronavirus is fizzling.
In March, a cohort of influential technology leaders formed a
task force to devise tech solutions for the pandemic, a signal that
the nation's innovation engine was kicking into gear. Employees of
Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Microsoft Corp. and
Amazon.com Inc. were involved, along with the White House and famed
venture investors.
Months later, the Technology and Research Task Force's biggest
plans, such as a hospital-bed tracker, contact-tracing tools and a
project to ship Kindle devices to nursing-home residents, have
failed to materialize amid what members say were disagreements over
privacy and other issues. It has cycled through members and a
leadership change, and some of the group's biggest names, from
Microsoft and Facebook to the White House, have dropped out or are
playing minimal roles.
Members say that the experience has shown them that the tech
industry can play an important supporting role as the world battles
the coronavirus crisis, but technology alone won't save the
day.
"An app is not going to fix this," said John Borthwick, a New
York-based venture capital investor who is now leading the
group.
The task force had been working with developers building
contact-tracing apps, one of its goals. When Apple Inc. and Google
later announced their own effort to help track infected people on
behalf of governments, some members say they were taken aback. Some
questioned its effectiveness and the companies' ability to keep
user information completely private, members said.
Mr. Borthwick took over the renamed Covid-19 Technology Task
Force in late April. He said the group, formed amid the chaos of
early March, was "messy at the beginning." He is now refocusing its
efforts on making connections and sharing information, rather than
developing its own projects.
The group is organizing a virtual "hackathon," to drive interest
in tackling the issue of social isolation, and is hosting a series
of online events on contact tracing with public health officials
and other experts.
As they brought together representatives from tech giants and
government in March, task force members harnessed the "save the
world" ethos that for years has defined Silicon Valley.
Everyone wanted to help. The biggest problem was managing the
deluge of ideas pouring in from the tech community, members
say.
The impetus for the task force came from Josh Mendelsohn, a
former Google employee who founded the company's disaster response
program after Hurricane Katrina, working on a system that
coordinated helicopter rescues across the Gulf states.
Now a managing partner at the New York-based venture firm
Hangar, Mr. Mendelsohn enlisted Ron Conway, an angel investor
renowned in Silicon Valley for his early bets on Twitter Inc.,
Google and Facebook and his wide industry network.
Some 45 people joined an early task force call in mid-March,
including Michael Kratsios, the White House's chief technology
officer, and his deputy, Lynne Parker, along with representatives
from the big tech companies.
The group soon ran into controversy: privacy. After seeing tech
giants get hammered by regulators and lawmakers over
data-collection practices pre-pandemic, conversations about
tracking individuals' virus exposure via cellphones and other
initiatives got lost in policy and regulatory concerns.
Caroline Buckee, a Harvard University epidemiologist and early
member of the task force, said weekly Zoom meetings devolved into
long discussions about privacy implications and best practices for
data.
"It was fragmented and it was unclear what the goals were," Ms.
Buckee said.
She and another early member, the geolocation startup Camber
Systems, left the group to build a network of aggregated location
data to help cities and states track how residents are moving
around, called Covid-19 Mobility Data Network.
The April 10 announcement of the Apple-Google project further
complicated efforts as members grew unsure about what to focus on
next. Ms. Buckee of Harvard was among members who questioned
whether the two companies' opt-in system -- which uses Bluetooth
technology to track users' cellphones and alert those who were
exposed to virus carriers -- would be effective as designed.
Members and executives at other companies contacted Apple and
Google, skeptical that the effort would truly protect the privacy
of users, or unsure that cities and states would opt for tech tools
over human contact tracers.
Julie Brill, privacy head at Microsoft, and Peter Lee, head of
research and incubation, and not members of the task force, warned
in a post on the company website that despite "rising excitement"
about using technology to fight the pandemic, companies needed to
consider evolving regulations as well as individuals' comfort with
sharing data.
"Technical advances, such as the use of mobile phones to collect
data of various kinds, need to be considered in the larger context
of the complexity of the world," the executives wrote.
Mr. Conway said he was "strongly in favor" of the Google and
Apple project and said he wasn't aware of anyone on the task force
who wasn't supportive of the company's efforts.
A spokesman for Apple, speaking on behalf of both Apple and
Google, said the technology isn't a substitute for traditional,
in-person contact tracing and "both companies are firmly grounded
in the fact that it's another tool at the disposal of public health
agencies -- not a silver bullet."
The companies earlier this month released the technology
supporting contact-tracing from mobile devices. Three states have
requested access to the technology but no apps are available yet in
the U.S. using the Apple-Google standard.
Starting in late March, some task force members said they could
no longer reach White House aides. Cities and states -- not
Washington -- were making decisions over which technologies to use,
making joint tech efforts even harder to manage.
A spokeswoman for the White House says it hasn't been involved
with the group since the call in mid-March, noting that the
administration is engaged with the tech industry, such as a
partnership with International Business Machines Corp. and Amazon
to offer free supercomputing resources to help develop virus
treatments.
The group's leader Mr. Mendelsohn was juggling volumes of email
about the task force along with his day job -- funding startups
through Hangar -- and family duties.
"I finally had to cry uncle," Mr. Mendelsohn said of his
decision to step aside from running the group. "This is a job for
people with grown kids."
In addition to Mr. Borthwick, the task force now counts about 18
members in its working group; 140 companies receive regular updates
on its doings, Mr. Borthwick said. Everyone is a volunteer.
It has appointed a new advisory board, which includes Robert
Iger, the former Walt Disney Company chief executive, and Leon
Panetta, the former U.S. Secretary of Defense. The board is
involved "when they wish or when there's something specific we need
to ask them," said Mr. Borthwick.
A spokesman for Mr. Panetta said he was unavailable. A
representative for Mr. Iger didn't return a request for
comment.
"We are trying to bring a degree of modesty," Mr. Borthwick
said. "Less thinking of tech as a solution."
Write to Kirsten Grind at kirsten.grind@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 29, 2020 09:13 ET (13:13 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.