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
Yesterday, the Trump administration announced via executive order that the United States was withdrawing from 66 international organizations, of which 31 fall under the United Nations (UN). [1] Among these organizations are the…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | 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
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
A federal appellate court recently delivered a remarkable win for the online, off-campus First Amendment speech rights of public high school students, even when posting social media content that most…
By Clay Calvert | December 22, 2025
As 2025 comes to a close, we’re taking the time to look back and analyze some of the most notable developments in tech policy. The following represents the technology and…
By The Editors | December 19, 2025
Recently, iRobot—the Massachusetts-based company that pioneered the robot vacuum—announced that it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Soon, it will be acquired by its Chinese manufacturer and lender, Picea Robotics.…
By Mark Jamison | December 19, 2025
Yesterday, the Trump Administration announced that it was taking steps to shut down the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). USA Today broke the story: The Trump administration is moving to…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | December 18, 2025
On October 1, the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA 2015) silently lapsed at the beginning of the government shutdown. With it no longer active, we lose a crucial information-sharing…
By Shane Tews | December 18, 2025
Maybe it’s merely a manifestation of our uncivil, politically polarized times, but disputes involving whether hateful or otherwise offensive social media messages cross the line separating “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open”…
By Clay Calvert | December 17, 2025
On December 10, Australia’s long-awaited and much-heralded provisions governing social media use by individuals under 16 came into force. This regulation, which is widely described as banning under-16s from social…
By Bronwyn Howell | December 16, 2025
I have lots of fascinating data to share today, hence the second Five Figures of December. Before the jump, here is an excerpt from my New York Post op-ed from earlier this week, which built…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | December 15, 2025