CRITICAL INFRASWTRUCTUREEssential Digital Technologies Are Critical Infrastructure – They Are Not Always Built and Managed That Way
Digital critical infrastructure can be built and managed better; people’s well-being depends on it. The challenge today is to ensure that as we develop the technologies that shape our future, they also advance society and help humans thrive.
What do the water system in Flint, Michigan, the electrical grid in Puerto Rico and your search engine have in common? They are all critical infrastructure – systems essential to everyday life.
People expect critical infrastructure to be reliable, to minimize risk and to promote public well-being. When it fails – such as when lead seepage poisoned Flint’s water supply in 2014, or when nearly all of Puerto Rico’s power went out on New Year’s Eve in 2024 – the public expects risks to be mitigated and problems to be addressed.
Today’s critical infrastructure includes food and water systems, roads and bridges, and financial and health systems. Much of the digital technology everyone depends on is also critical infrastructure. People depend on search engines for information, social media for public announcements and important communications, and AI-powered services for analysis and decision-making. All are essential to function in modern civic society.
When search engines opportunistically shape the information that people seek, social media is polluted with misinformation, and AI-driven services serve up unsafe recommendations or “digital slop,” many people chalk it up to the cost of engaging with the commercial sector and feel powerless to control their information – or one form of “digital resignation.”
My experience as former director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center and co-founder of the international Research Data Alliance suggests that it doesn’t have to be this way. Digital infrastructure can be designed, built and managed for human well-being just as other critical infrastructure is.
To do so, society will need to change both its expectations about digital critical infrastructure and its actions – the way the public and private sectors create and regulate these services and systems and the way the public uses them – to better protect the people who depend on them.
From Food to Search Engines
People expect critical infrastructure to be safe and secure for widespread use. They expect it to be broadly accessible and reliable, and to promote public interests at least as much as commercial profit. This means incorporating safeguards for the public such as speed limits on roads, redundant systems in power plants, and privacy regulations governing health data. It is never perfect, but people expect critical infrastructure to be built, managed and regulated to support and protect a vulnerable public.
Consider food and information systems: Both sustain the well-being of the public in different ways. In the food system, public health standards safeguard the way your food is processed so that it
