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February 10, 2025

New FDA Policies Could Limit the Full Value of AI in Medicine

The application of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine is expanding at an astonishing pace, mirroring the rapid advances in AI technology itself. Some experts within the field predict that in the next several years, developers may realize artificial general intelligence (AGI)—a revolutionary form of AI capable of understanding, learning, and applying knowledge across various tasks with…

February 3, 2025

The Ivanpah Solar Power Monstrosity Bites the Taxpayers. Again.

It was the future. It would demonstrate how to save the planet. It would produce electricity clean and cheap and immune to the vagaries of international shifts in prices, interest rates, currency exchange values, and the caprice of foreign governments. It was a demonstration of the massive achievements possible from public/private “partnerships,” that is, central…

January 30, 2025

Protecting Kids and Adults Online: Device-Level Age Authentication

Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, which involves a constitutional challenge to a Texas age verification law for websites containing sexually explicit material. The case offers the Court the opportunity to revisit two cases decided at the dawn of the Internet Age finding such requirements violated the…

January 13, 2025

Restoring the Lost Law of Eavesdropping

Under a standard of recency that allowed me to review a 40-year-old book in 2023, I want to celebrate the very recent publication, over a year ago, of two articles on the law of eavesdropping. Historically, there was fairly robust law on listening in. Given new technological forms of secret overhearing, that law may have…

January 3, 2025

AI Will Have a Major Impact on Labor Markets. Here’s How the US Can Prepare.

The nation can do better at forecasting AI-driven job and skill changes, including with a data-focused nonprofit that examines the technology’s impact. Markets are the killer app for efficiently organizing unfathomably complex human activities to deliver innovation and prosperity. They can also shift suddenly, creating winners and losers, even as broad measures of economic health…

December 30, 2024

The FDA’s Risky Action on Compounding Weight Loss Drugs

When Makena, a drug designed to prevent preterm births, hit the market in 2011 at $1,500 per dose, it drew rife backlash. The drug was based on an active ingredient that had been available for many years at a much lower cost. Confronted with the public outcry, the FDA took an unusual step: It allowed…

December 30, 2024

2024 Tech Year in Review

As 2024 comes to a close, we’re taking the time to look back and analyze some of the biggest developments in tech policy. The following represents the technology and innovation team’s year in review. The remarkable advancement of AI over the past year has catalyzed unprecedented innovation and strategic planning that will change the skills…

December 23, 2024

AI Tutors: Hype or Hope for Education?

his thought-provoking book, Brave New Words, Sal Khan discusses his early experimentation with generative AI, or GenAI, models and how, over time, they might change education. If AI is a new frontier, Brave New Words reads much like the field notes of an explorer documenting his experiences and trying to make sense of what they mean for teaching…

December 23, 2024

Big Tech’s Data Centers Won’t Get Far Unless the Power Grid Is Regulated Less

The United States holds a commanding lead in data-center capacity, hosting 37% of the world’s facilities, and being home to the largest data center providers — Amazon.com, Microsoft, and Alphabet. These data centers are more than just infrastructure; they are the backbone of artificial intelligence (AI), driving innovations from personalized healthcare to automated supply chains. They are…

December 20, 2024

What’s Next After Court Upholds TikTok Ban

Last week, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit upheld the TikTok divest-or-ban bill against a constitutional challenge. The result was unsurprising given how poorly TikTok fared at September’s oral argument. The decision itself contains many intriguing legal insights at the nexus of national security and free speech. This post examines the court’s…