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August 4, 2025
Congress Must Lead on Universal Service Reform
Last week, I was privileged to participate in a panel discussion at the NARUC Summer Policy Summit. Titled “USF in the 21st Century: Where Do We Go From Here?,” the panel was moderated by Nebraska Commissioner Tim Schram and included representatives from the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association, and the Computer…
July 31, 2025
Data, Security, and Liberty: What’s at Stake in Federal Consolidation?
On July 16, 2025, AEI hosted an expert panel discussing the critical issues surrounding federal data consolidation and the protection of civil liberties in the digital age. The panel featured Courtney Bowman of Palantir Technologies, Alexandra Reeve Givens of the Center for Democracy & Technology, Daniel Werfel, former US Commissioner of the IRS, and Kim…
July 30, 2025
Letting Tech Companies Assert Their Users’ Online First Amendment Rights Is Vital
It’s increasingly clear how important standing is for asserting online First Amendment speech rights. Last year, the US Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri dismissed on standing grounds the claims of two states and five individuals alleging that multiple Biden administration officials unlawfully pressured and coerced social media platforms “to suppress protected speech in violation…
July 29, 2025
Taxing and/or Licensing Digital Platforms
Earlier this month, the European Commission Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy—Henna Virkkunen—confirmed that the European Union (EU) does not plan to levy fees on Big Tech companies to recover the high costs faced by EU antitrust regulators monitoring and enforcing the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Strong support for such a levy has…
July 29, 2025
The Tea App Breach Shows Why We Can’t Regulate for Openness Without Planning for Security
Last week, a dating safety app called Tea Dating Advice—which allows women to anonymously share dating experiences to keep others safe—was a viral success. It had risen to the top of Apple’s App Store charts and had over 1.6 million users. Just as it appeared poised to become a major tool to advance digital safety,…
July 28, 2025
America’s AI Action Plan: What to Watch
The Trump administration’s AI Action Plan outlines bold steps to accelerate innovation and boost US leadership in AI. My recent post highlights some of the needed proposals to cut red tape, streamline permitting, and spur private-sector growth. Yet for all its ambition, the plan overlooks several high-stakes gaps—areas where evolving risks may require more proactive…
July 25, 2025
The AI Action Plan: Securing America’s Future in the Age of Intelligence
The White House released its 2025 AI Action Plan—a 28-page blueprint focused on securing US leadership in artificial intelligence. It’s an executive-led strategy with minimal reliance on Congress, emphasizing rapid deployment and national competitiveness. The plan is organized around three pillars: innovation, infrastructure, and international engagement. Each pillar underscores how AI is not just a…
July 24, 2025
Airline Security’s Best-Kept Secret
Salutations to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for announcing earlier this month that people would no longer need to remove their shoes at security checkpoints in our nation’s airports. We should welcome exceptions to the generally rigid risk aversion in government-run airline security. And the really good news is that, formally or informally,…
July 23, 2025
Trump’s New AI Plan Is Necessary but Insufficient
My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers, At minimum, the Trump White House’s new AI Action Plan deserves credit for being honest about what it is: not a blueprint for technocratic governance or navigating a world of superintelligence, but rather a stab at geostrategic competitiveness policy designed to ensure American dominance in what could be the defining technology of our time….
July 22, 2025
Europe’s Data Strategy Is Built on Wishful Thinking
The European Union is trying to engineer a digital revolution. Through its European Strategy for Data, EU officials hope to create a “single market for data,” knitting together governments, businesses, and individuals into a shared system of industrial and personal data. The goal is an innovative, sovereign digital ecosystem that can rival the United States…