Higher Ed Combats U.S. Info Tech Decline, Says WEF

  • By Paul McCloskey
  • 04/02/07
The United States is falling behind European countries and Singapore in exploiting information technology, according to a report last week by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The United States dropped from first to seventh place in the WEF's annual "Networked Readiness Index," the Reuters news agency reported.

However, the decline might have been steeper if not for the "primacy" of  the U.S. higher education system, the WEF said, as well as the  cooperation between U.S. higher education and industry and the availability of venture capital. Instead, the U.S. decline is mainly due to the deterioration of the U.S. political and regulatory environment, according to the WEF report.

The top slot in the index went to Denmark, which had an excellent regulatory environment and clear government leadership and vision in application of computer technology, according to the report.

Read More:

About the Author

Paul McCloskey is contributing editor of Syllabus.

Featured

  • student reading a book with a brain, a protective hand, a computer monitor showing education icons, gears, and leaves

    4 Steps to Responsible AI Implementation

    Researchers at the University of Kansas Center for Innovation, Design & Digital Learning (CIDDL) have published a new framework for the responsible implementation of artificial intelligence at all levels of education.

  • glowing digital brain interacts with an open book, with stacks of books beside it

    Federal Court Rules AI Training with Copyrighted Books Fair Use

    A federal judge ruled this week that artificial intelligence company Anthropic did not violate copyright law when it used copyrighted books to train its Claude chatbot without author consent, but ordered the company to face trial on allegations it used pirated versions of the books.

  • server racks, a human head with a microchip, data pipes, cloud storage, and analytical symbols

    OpenAI, Oracle Expand AI Infrastructure Partnership

    OpenAI and Oracle have announced they will develop an additional 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity, expanding their artificial intelligence infrastructure partnership as part of the Stargate Project, a joint venture among OpenAI, Oracle, and Japan's SoftBank Group that aims to deploy 10 gigawatts of computing capacity over four years.

  • laptop displaying a phishing email icon inside a browser window on the screen

    Phishing Campaign Targets ED Grant Portal

    Threat researchers at cybersecurity company BforeAI have identified a phishing campaign spoofing the U.S. Department of Education's G5 grant management portal.