There is no doubt that American tech giants and companies in general have a commanding position. Indeed, the entire technological basis of me writing these words rests entirely on American tech giants, writing on an Apple computer in Google docs, but does that fact generalise to make the American nation a superior technological power? We can think of technological supremacy along two lines: Innovation of digital capabilities on the one hand and integration and usage of digital services on the other.
Having lived for many years in the US I have some experience that allows me to compare a (Northern) European perspective with the American. I usually say that my general perception of America is that the bottom level is very low, the average is low and the top level is incredibly high. That goes for technology too.
Let’s take the bottom level. In America, for the first time in my life in my forties, I was issued a check book by my bank. I had only faint memories of my grandmother smoking cigars and writing chekcks in my early childhood, but in the US I realized there are transactions that are only possible with cheques, so I had to learn how to write the corect numbers and send the check by mail. Oh, but when you received a check, there was an advanced AI technology (OCR) in the bank app that allowed you to take a picture of the check and cash it. That was my favorite function.
As for the average level, very little official business can be meaningfully or fully conducted electronically. Typically you have to go to an office or send photocopied documents by mail to an office in Texas or another far away state. There is no real way to get in contact electronically with public institutions. Billing, any kind of billing, frequently was not correct which necessitates a continuous scan of your bank account, which is also mandatory for identifying fraudulent charges, which are so common that it is a weekly or monthly affair to get in touch with your bank to reverse them. In Europe, I have not experienced a fraudulent charge on my account even once although I am sure it happens. Another more amusing incident was when the GPS of my Chevy Equinoxe told me to “make an illegal U-turn.” Also a first for me.
Now for the top level, look at companies like Amazon who created the cloud computing that is now the primary way to build and run applications. Look at OpenAI who made it possible to have human-like conversations with the computer. Look at Tesla who singlehandedly made electric cars feasible and attractive or Space X who created a completely novel way to travel to space and with it a new space based internet. Let’s not forget the thousands of start ups and scale ups that are making everything from investing to schedulling dentists appointments easier disrupting existing models. Along with the general eductional level, expertise and investment ecosystem there is no other place with a higher level of technical capability in every way.
Now does that mean that America is superior? or does it just mean that America has Islands that are superior? America is a nation of Islands, gated communities, isolated elites and very little and unfortunately dwindling, social and cultural cohesion. It does focused development of technology better than anyone but the general level of digitalisation is worse than India with its Unified Payment System.
America is good at making innovative solutions but not at using or integrating them in the wider fabric of society. It is focussed on isolated islands where it can excel and neglects the territory of ordinary people’s day to day experience. Fraud, low quality solutions, wasteful manual and physical processes abound because focus is on building shining beacons on top of the islands not evenly lit roads through the territory.
Digital supremacy is not built by constructing shining Islands of innovations alone, it is done by slowly transforming the territory. That will perhaps not look as bright from day one but in time it will compound. Just as farming transformed human civilization building coherent interoperable digital infrastructures will transform human digital civilization. American technological supremacy is therefore only evident if you are looking for the bright and shiny things. America needs to invest more in general digitalisation and quality of services to truly become the technological leader.