This week, I appeared on the Tech Freedom Tech Policy Podcast to discuss “Who’s Afraid of Artificial Intelligence?” It’s an in-depth, wide-ranging conversation about all things AI related. Here’s a summary of what host what Corbin Barthold and I discussed:
1. The “little miracles happening every day” thanks to AI
2. Is AI a “born free” technology?
3. Potential anti-competitive effects of AI regulation
4. The flurry of joint letters
5. new AI regulatory agency political realities
6. the EU’s Precautionary Principle tech policy disaster
7. The looming “war on computation” & open source
8. The role of common law for AI
9. Is Sam Altman breaking the very laws he proposes?
10. Do we need an IAEA for AI or an “AI Island”
11. Nick Bostrom’s global control & surveillance model
12. Why “doom porn” dominates in academic circles
13. Will AI take all the jobs?
14. Smart regulation of algorithmic technology
15. How the “pacing problem” is sometimes the “pacing benefit”
It was my pleasure to recently appear on the Independent Women’s Forum’s “She Thinks” podcast to discuss “Artificial Intelligence for Dummies.” In this 24-minute conversation with host Beverly Hallberg, I outline basic definitions, identify potential benefits, and then consider some of the risks associated with AI, machine learning, and algorithmic systems.
It was my pleasure to recently join Matthew Lesh, Director of Public Policy and Communications for the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), for the IEA podcast discussion, “Should We Regulate AI?” In our wide-ranging 30-minute conversation, we discuss how artificial intelligence policy is playing out across nations and I explained why I feel the UK has positioned itself smartly relative to the US & EU on AI policy. I argued that the UK approach encourages a better ‘innovation culture’ than the new US model being formulated by the Biden Administration.
We also went through some of the many concerns driving calls to regulate AI today, including: fears about job dislocations, privacy and security issues, national security and existential risks, and much more.
Why is it illegal in many states to purchase an electric vehicle directly from a manufacturer? In this new Federalist Society podcast, Univ. of Michigan law school professor Daniel Crane and I examine how state protectionist barriers block choice and innovation for no good reason whatsoever. The only group that benefits from these protectionist, anti-consumer direct sales bans are local car dealers who don’t want the competition.
Corbin Barthold invited me on Tech Freedom’s “Tech Policy Podcast” to discuss the history of antitrust and competition policy over the past half century. We covered a huge range of cases and controversies, including: the DOJ’s mega cases against IBM & AT&T, Blockbuster and Hollywood Video’s derailed merger, the Sirius-XM deal, the hysteria over the AOL-Time Warner merger, the evolution of competition in mobile markets, and how we finally ended that dreaded old MySpace monopoly!
What does the future hold for Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Netflix? Do antitrust regulators at the DOJ or FTC have enough to mount a case against these firms? Which case is most likely to have legs?
Corbin and I also talked about the of progress more generally and the troubling rise of more and more Luddite thinking on both the left and right. I encourage you to give it a listen:
I recently joined Rep. Dan Crenshaw on his Hold These Truths podcast to discuss, “What’s Wrong with Industrial Policy.” We chatted for 25 minutes about a wide range of issues related to the the growing push for grandiose industrial policy schemes in the US, including the massive new 3,000-page, $350 billion “COMPETES Act” legislation that recently passed in the House and which will soon be conferenced with a Senate bill that already passed.
On the same day this podcast was released this week, I also had a new op-ed appear in The Hill on “The Coming Industrial Policy Hangover.” In both that essay and the podcast with Rep. Crenshaw, I stress that, beyond all the other problems with these new industrial policy measures, no one is talking about the fiscal cost of it all. As I note:
In the rush to pass legislation, we’ve barely heard a peep about the $250-$350 billion price tag. This follows a massive splurge of recent government borrowing, which led to the U.S. national debt hitting another lamentable new record: $30 trillion. China already owns over $1 trillion of that debt, making one wonder if we’re really countering China by adopting a massive, new and unfunded industrial policy that they will end up financing indirectly.
This week, I hosted another installment of the “Tech Roundup,” for the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project. This latest 30-minute episode was on, “Autonomous Vehicles: Where Are We Now?” I was joined by Marc Scribner, a transportation policy expert with the Reason Foundation. We provided an quick update of where federal and state policy for AVs stands as of early 2022 and offered some thoughts about what might happen next in the Biden Administration Department of Transportation (DOT). Some experts believe that the DOT could be ready to start aggressively regulating driverless car tech or AV companies, especially Elon Musk’s Tesla. Tune in to hear what Marc and I have to say about all that and more.
I was my pleasure to appear on the latest episode of the Dissed podcast to discuss economic liberty and the right to earn a living. The show was hosted by Anastasia Boden and Elizabeth Slattery of the Pacific Legal Foundation and it included legal scholars Hadley Arkes, Timothy Sandefur, and Clark Neily. I appear in the second half of the program.
I wanted to bring to your attention this Federalist Society podcast discussion I hosted a few weeks ago on, “Tech Policy Under the Biden Administration and 117th Congress.” I was joined by Jennifer Huddleston, Director of Technology & Innovation Policy at the American Action Forum, and Blake Reid, Clinical Professor at the University of Colorado Law School.
We discussed key policy debates – such as antitrust and “Big Tech,” online speech and Section 230, and the race to 5G – and considered how the new presidential administration and Congress might approach innovation and the tech industry in 2021 and beyond. Note: You might also want to check out this earlier essay by Jennifer on, “5 Tech Policy Topics to Follow in the Biden Administration and 117th Congress.”
Here’s a new episode of the James Madison Institute “Policy Gone Viral” podcast in which my former Mercatus Center colleague Andrea O’Sullivan and I discuss the future of technological innovation and the public policies governing it. The video is embedded below or you can listen to just the audio here.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology. Learn more about TLF →
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.