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All Research

Free Speech Tradeoffs and Roleplaying Chatbots: Sacrificing the Rights of Many to Safeguard a Few?
Article
AEIdeas

Free Speech Tradeoffs and Roleplaying Chatbots: Sacrificing the Rights of Many to Safeguard a Few?

First Amendment law entails tradeoffs. Consider Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, a case the US Supreme Court heard in January. It involves an online age-verification statute that ostensibly is designed…

The Supreme Court Seems Unlikely to Revive Nondelegation Doctrine in FCC Case
Article
AEIdeas

The Supreme Court Seems Unlikely to Revive Nondelegation Doctrine in FCC Case

Earlier this month, I previewed the arguments in Federal Communications Commission v Consumers’ Research. The case asks the Supreme Court whether the FCC’s Universal Service Fund (USF) violates the nondelegation…

Another Courtroom Loss for AI Creations, as “Automatoners” Prevail Again
Article
AEIdeas

Another Courtroom Loss for AI Creations, as “Automatoners” Prevail Again

Last month, a federal appeals court confirmed what most legal regimes around the world—patent offices, administrative judges, and even supreme courts—have long held: Machines cannot themselves create. Readers of this…

Return of the Landline: A Regressive or Welcome Scenario?
Article
AEIdeas

Return of the Landline: A Regressive or Welcome Scenario?

If there has been one inexorable trend in the telecommunications industry over the past 30 years, it has been the decline of the household landline phone connection. While Figure 1 illustrates the…

The Press Clause’s Disputed Meaning and Its Implications for Trump-Era Journalism
Article
AEIdeas

The Press Clause’s Disputed Meaning and Its Implications for Trump-Era Journalism

A burgeoning battle among academics and attorneys involving a centuries-old communications technology––the printing press––could impact journalists’ current claims to constitutional protection against President Trump’s ceaseless attacks on news organizations. Indeed,…

DOGE, Open Up the MAX Database!
Article
AEIdeas

DOGE, Open Up the MAX Database!

My most recent post “Haste Controls Waste!” sought to reconcile my misgivings about the speed of current government reforms with decades of staunch and thoroughgoing resistance. Now let’s talk about…

How much might AI legislation cost in the US?
Article

How much might AI legislation cost in the US?

Policymakers are rushing to regulate artificial intelligence (AI), but the economic impact of these regulations remains largely unexplored. While the European Union and the United Kingdom have produced cost estimates, recent developments in the…

How the Founders Addressed Facial Recognition Technology
Article
AEIdeas

How the Founders Addressed Facial Recognition Technology

If you study Fourth Amendment law and jurisprudential trends, you can—at least in a figurative, tentative, hopeful, and possibly illusory sense—see the future. Subject to all those caveats, I have…

Connecting the Dots on the Chips
Article
AEIdeas

Connecting the Dots on the Chips

Recent posts by fellow AEI scholars Klon Kitchen and Claude Barfield separately highlighted two important issues that must be considered together if the United States is to truly benefit from—and…

Trump as Information Gatekeeper: Controlling Access, Controlling Narratives
Article
AEIdeas

Trump as Information Gatekeeper: Controlling Access, Controlling Narratives

President Donald Trump increasingly is playing the role of information gatekeeper, striving to control access to venues—technological and physical—where important expressive activities occur. By dictating access on his terms, Trump…

AI and American Dynamism
Article
AEIdeas

AI and American Dynamism

Last year, I published a report, The Age of Uncertainty, on the challenges in understanding and estimating the job and skill impacts of artificial intelligence. One of the big problems was…

Why Cutting Basic Science Funding May Amount to Economic Unilateral Disarmament
Article
AEIdeas

Why Cutting Basic Science Funding May Amount to Economic Unilateral Disarmament

Earlier this month, Eric Berger of Ars Technica reported that the White Houses’ first budget request of Donald Trump’s second term could be a fiscal reckoning for America’s government scientific enterprise. The…

The Intel Challenge and Trump’s Foolhardy Plans for Semiconductor Tariffs
Article
AEIdeas

The Intel Challenge and Trump’s Foolhardy Plans for Semiconductor Tariffs

Intel, the nation’s putative semiconductor “national champion” has fallen on hard times. Having led technologically for some decades, Intel fell behind demands for advanced chips after the iPhone emergence and most recently…

America Must Lead the AI Revolution—for Ourselves and Our Allies
Article
AEIdeas

America Must Lead the AI Revolution—for Ourselves and Our Allies

Vice President JD Vance’s remarks at the AI Action Summit weren’t just another policy speech—they were a declaration of intent. The Trump administration is staking out a coherent vision: AI…

AI and the Future of Work Looks Bright
Article
Desert News

AI and the Future of Work Looks Bright

One of the hottest guessing games in workforce development is figuring out how generative artificial intelligence will affect jobs and how to prepare students and workers for an AI-infused economy.…