Steamboats to software: Microsoft’s Brad Smith mines America’s founding for tech insights

As the country marks its 250th birthday this week, Microsoft is rolling out an unlikely summer project: a six-part series of short videos , hosted by Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith, that look to American history for lessons relevant to technology and innovation today. The premise is that every technology debate of the moment — over such issues as patents, privacy, and who gets to shape AI — has a precedent somewhere in the country’s past, and that we’d all benefit from remembering