Testimony of Dr. Gary D. Butler
Chairman and CEO, Camgian
United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Legislative Hearing on the Endless Frontier ActApril 14, 2021

Good morning.

Chair Cantwell, Ranking Member Wicker, and distinguished

Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. In my
previous career, I worked here in the Beltway for a Cambridge, Massachusettsbased advanced technology research and development firm, leading appliedresearch programs funded by organizations such as DARPA. In 2006 I made thedecision to move to Mississippi, my home state, where I founded Camgian. Myobjective was to leverage our organic talent to build a leading high-tech company
and limit the brain drain from our state, which we have done.
Since that time, Camgian has grown into an award-winning high-tech company,
which today is building solutions addressing our country’s most pressing national
security issues and providing information products and services to some of theworld’s leading financial institutions. Our business model is built on artificial
intelligence (AI) and software and their combined ability to drive new levels ofdecision automation. This from a high-tech company headquartered in a state witha greater than 20% poverty level and a county classified as “at-risk” by theAppalachian Regional Commission where a portion of the county is classified as
economically distressed, and in the bottom 10-25% economically of all counties inthe United States.

1|PageAs today's discussions reflect on the innovation needed to maintain our global
leadership, I will use my time to focus on a technology area identified in the Endless
Frontier Act that I believe is vital to our country’s future. This technology is AI.
Make no doubt, the US is in a global AI race. In July 2017, the State Council of China
released a plan to build a domestic AI industry worth nearly $150 billion with atarget to become the leading AI power by 2030. Global efforts to increase funding
and government-led support of AI technology development have resulted in an
increase in new high-tech companies and applications that are radicallytransforming the battlefield. As such, Camgian is deeply engaged in addressingthese emerging threats by developing AI-enabled solutions that help ourwarfighters think and act faster than our competitors.
The primary source of our funding is from the Department of Defense (DoD). This
funding supports our applied research and development efforts, which in turn fuels
our technology and product development. I want to leverage our know-how,processes, technologies, and talent to address national competitiveness issues in AI
and expand our business in the broader commercial market. However, funding
sources and opportunities to pursue this strategy for small high-tech companies
like Camgian are extremely limited.

2|PageTo address this critical gap, I applaud Congress for taking the bold move to expand
the scope of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to include applied research in
the organization’s mission but would ask that you consider the vital role that hightech entrepreneurial companies play in technology commercialization. Speaking
on behalf of this community, I would advocate for an implementation plan tofacilitate a public-private partnership between our country’s best academic minds
and our best high-tech entrepreneurs.
Applied to our national competitive gaps, this approach would catalyze those on
the front lines of our global technology competition, the high-tech entrepreneurial
companies. As an agile high-tech business, our advantage is speed. We cannot
survive by being distracted, complacent, cautious thinkers, or incrementalists.
Innovation and a sense of urgency must be in our DNA or we die at the hands oflarge corporations. Coupled with our skills in product development and marketing,a strong academic and entrepreneurial high-tech sector partnership would deliver
future technologies and applications to the market to address our national
competitive gaps.
More importantly, a prominent role for small high-tech businesses would establish
the framework for protecting our country’s valuable intellectual property. Toemphasize the importance of this point, one of the breakthroughs in AI is deep
3|Pagelearning, which was created almost entirely through academic research in theUnited States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Capabilities derived from AI
research are shared across the globe through the open-source community anddeep learning technologies now underpin many products and systems that directlycompete against the US both commercially and militarily. Quoting from the book
AI Super-Powers by Kai-Fu Lee, “The West may have sparked the fire of deeplearning, but China will be the biggest beneficiary of the heat the AI fire isgenerating.” 1In closing, I would like you to consider three takeaways from my testimony today.
First, I would recommend using the DARPA applied research model, which is provenand would provide small high-tech companies the ability to directly apply to thenew NSF for grants to support technology development and prototyping.
Expanding investment in the NSF without an effective commercialization process
will have a minimal effect on US global competitiveness. According to the National
Science Board, academic institutions accounted for only 2% of the patents grantedin 2016 and many generate less revenue from licensing their inventions than theKai-Fu Lee, Ai Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, And The New World Order (Houghton Miffin Harcourt
Company, 1st Edition, September1, 2018) page 12

14|Pagecost of managing them, per a 2020 Washington Post article2. This is not meant tobe a criticism of universities, but to highlight that moving research from the lab tothe market is complex and is best suited for America’s small high-tech sector whohas the technical talent, organizational infrastructure, and business processes to fillthis role immediately. Most importantly, America’s high-tech entrepreneurs willbring the sense of urgency, competitive drive, and speed necessary to meet theaccelerated pace of the emerging challenges to our global technical leadership.
Second, I would call on Congress to develop policy that ensures inclusivity of theentire country, not just the traditional tech-hubs and large tech firms, in a unifying
mission that leverages the power of our nation’s diversity. This includes thediversity of thought, culture, and socioeconomics that exists across our great
country to build the next-generation technologies, products, and workforce of 21stcentury America.
Finally, history shows that if you give the US entrepreneurs the mission andfunding, the US will win this race.

John Markus (January 17, 2020) Think universities are making lots of money from inventions? Think again.
Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/think-universities-are-making-lots-of-moneyfrom-inventions-think-again/2020/01/16/3989e448-362f-11ea-bb7b-265f4554af6d_story.html
25|PageChair Cantwell, Ranking Member Wicker, and Members of the Committee, thankyou again for the opportunity to testify before you today. On behalf of Camgianand other high-tech small businesses across America, bipartisan solutions withlegislation such as this are essential as a catalyst to maintain the US as a global
technology and innovation leader.

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