If we’re going to fix electricity pricing problems, we need to understand what’s actually causing them. Blaming data centers for rising electricity bills is easier than reforming how we allocate…
By Will Rinehart | January 15, 2026
In today’s digital economy, mobile apps are everywhere—and so are the entrepreneurs trying to build them. Over 3.8 million apps are available in Apple’s App Store, with new ones entering…
By Mark Jamison | January 15, 2026
Key Points Read the PDF (text version below): Editor’s Note In 1986, the American Enterprise Institute published The Politics of Industrial Policy, a collection of essays edited by AEI Senior Fellow…
By Jeffrey A. Hart | January 14, 2026
Parents have valid concerns about how online environments shape their children’s behavior. However, as the House Energy and Commerce Committee advances a comprehensive package of children’s online safety bills, the…
By Shane Tews | January 13, 2026
An appellate court ruled in late November that a Florida law severely limiting minors’ ability to hold social media accounts and imposing age-verification and parental-confirmation requirements on platforms “likely” passes…
By Clay Calvert | January 13, 2026
In 2025, the landscape of digital safety for youth shifted from monitoring to integrated protection. Major platforms have moved beyond simple screen-time counters to introduce granular content filtering, mandatory age-appropriate…
By Shane Tews | January 12, 2026
There were ghosts in the old City Hall subway station when New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the oath of office January 1. They were not the sentimental kind—not…
By Mark Jamison | January 12, 2026
With the second Trump administration settling into its second year, 2026 promises to bring continued evolution in technology policy. Our scholars are examining the developments likely to shape the year…
By The Editors | January 9, 2026
As the increased use of artificial intelligence necessitates connectivity, it will continue to become inextricably linked to the digital network landscape. When people talk about artificial intelligence, they usually focus…
By Shane Tews | January 8, 2026
Automatic-reply, out-of-office (OOO) emails are generally informative, innocuous and noncontroversial. They’re frequently formulaic—templates abound—and Microsoft offers instructions for their creation. However, the OOO emails at the heart of a First…
By Clay Calvert | January 8, 2026
Abstract This paper argues that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has outlived the economic and technological conditions that justified its creation. The monopolistic telephone and spectrum scarcity environments of 1934…
By Mark Jamison | January 7, 2026
Artificial intelligence is currently the shiny toy in tech, and when discussing it, most focus on the “AI stack,” data centers, or chips as the most vital aspect of furthering…
By Shane Tews | January 7, 2026
Keep an eye on a recent case filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF). It may broaden recognition of something the Supreme Court has found: Cell phones are no ordinary…
By Jim Harper | January 6, 2026
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in October delivered a significant triumph for the online speech rights of public high school students over educators’ authority to discipline…
By Clay Calvert | December 23, 2025
As large language models (LLMs) increasingly replace traditional search engines as tools for information gathering, the use of AI in the political arena—and its impact on elections—is inevitable. Recent research…
By John Bailey | Julia Torres | December 22, 2025