All Research

All Research

Human Ambition and Natural Beauty Meet in the City
Article
The Dispatch

Human Ambition and Natural Beauty Meet in the City

A couple of weeks ago, the climate writer Robinson Meyer posted something that’s been on my mind. It gets at something fundamental about the infrastructure of American cities. This is a trite…

The DOJ’s Google Remedy Will Kill, Not Spur, Competition
Article
AEIdeas

The DOJ’s Google Remedy Will Kill, Not Spur, Competition

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has won its case against Google Search. Now it’s proposing remedies that will hinder competition. But isn’t antitrust supposed to do the opposite? One remedy…

Policing News, Policing DEI: The FCC’s Shifting Priorities Erode Its Credibility
Article
AEIdeas

Policing News, Policing DEI: The FCC’s Shifting Priorities Erode Its Credibility

My colleague Mark Jamison recently observed that “[f]or decades, well-functioning independent regulatory agencies have been a stabilizing force.” Though primarily addressing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) following President Donald Trump’s…

So, Are We Gonna Ban TikTok, Or…?
Article
AEIdeas

So, Are We Gonna Ban TikTok, Or…?

It has been 373 days since Congress enacted the TikTok divest-or-ban law, 105 days since the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law as constitutional, and over three months since the…

Redrawing the Map: How Legal Decisions and Trade Policies Are Transforming Our Tech Ecosystem
Article
AEIdeas

Redrawing the Map: How Legal Decisions and Trade Policies Are Transforming Our Tech Ecosystem

The battle between national interests and technology’s inherently borderless nature is escalating, threatening to reshape the very technologies and services central to our daily lives. Global dynamics are redefining the…

Confining Government Power Over Editorial Decisions is Vital
Article
AEIdeas

Confining Government Power Over Editorial Decisions is Vital

How much authority and leeway should the government––specifically, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)––possess to decide whether news is accurate or distorted and, in turn, to punish broadcasters for the latter?…

A World with Smart AI but Not Human-Level AI
Article
AEIdeas

A World with Smart AI but Not Human-Level AI

How long, if ever, before we achieve artificial intelligence that can pretty much do everything that a human worker can do currently? My short-hand way of gauging the speculative timeline…

A NEPA Update from the White House
Article
AEIdeas

A NEPA Update from the White House

This past January, the White House issued Executive Order (EO) 14154, “Unleashing American Energy,” which rescinded EO 11991 from May 1977. For nearly 50 years, EO 11991 served as a…

The Digital Markets Act: A Security Risk for Encrypted Communications
Article
AEIdeas

The Digital Markets Act: A Security Risk for Encrypted Communications

A recent controversy involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth presents a sobering, real-world example of the security risks posed by messaging platforms. Hegseth and other senior Trump administration officials discussed sensitive…

The FCC’s Misguided Efforts to Police News Trump Disdains
Article
AEIdeas

The FCC’s Misguided Efforts to Police News Trump Disdains

Much is disturbing about the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. For starters, he was deported to an El Salvador prison due to what one Republican US Senator recently called “a…

America’s AI Future Needs Faster Permitting
Article
AEIdeas

America’s AI Future Needs Faster Permitting

The United States leads the world in artificial intelligence, but it’s not guaranteed to stay there. The bottleneck isn’t talent, ideas, or capital—it’s electricity. Electricity is the binding constraint for…

The Dangerous Road to a “Master File”—Why Linking Government Databases Is a Terrible Idea
Article
AEIdeas

The Dangerous Road to a “Master File”—Why Linking Government Databases Is a Terrible Idea

A concerning development from the Trump administration has privacy advocates sounding alarm bells nationwide: a plan to consolidate data from dozens of government agencies into what would amount to a…

The Rigidity Cycle and the Pacing Problem
Article
Knowledge Problem

The Rigidity Cycle and the Pacing Problem

I was listening to Tyler Cowen’s Conversations With Tyler podcast with Jennifer Pahlka, rich and full of detail relevant to my previous post on the pacing problem. In addition to recommending…

Judge McFadden’s First Amendment Ruling Against the White House: Infusing Modern Speech Doctrines with History and Tradition
Article
AEIdeas

Judge McFadden’s First Amendment Ruling Against the White House: Infusing Modern Speech Doctrines with History and Tradition

I recently addressed today’s debate over the Press Clause’s meaning 234 years after the First Amendment’s ratification. The rift involves whether the clause is “a technology-specific provision” that safeguards “everyone’s…

Article
AEIdeas

Bastiat and What is Not Seen in Tech Policy

Over at The Dispatch, AEI Senior Fellow Jonah Goldberg recently praised Frédéric Bastiat’s classic essay, “That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen.” Goldberg cited the piece to…