'I can understand about 50 percent of the things you say': How Congress is struggling to get smart on tech

A quartet of tech experts arrived at a little-noticed hearing at the U.S. Capitol in May with a message: Quantum computing is a bleeding-edge technology with the potential to speed up drug research, financial transactions and more. To Rep. Adam Kinzinger, though, their highly technical testimony might as well have been delivered in a foreign language. "I can understand about 50 percent of the things you say," the Illinois Republican confessed. Kinzinger's quip drew chuckles from his peers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but it also illustrated an unavoidable challenge on Capitol Hill. Increasingly, members of Congress are confronting a wide array of complex policy debates posed by inventions like artificial intelligence and problems like the rise of Russian propaganda online.