Welcome to Our Research Archive
Search and filter by content type, issue area, author, and keyword
- ✕ Clear Filter
- AI (1)
- Article (4)
- Articles (977)
- book (1)
- Climate (239)
- climate change (1)
- data dashboard (14)
- electricity (3)
- energy (243)
- Events (25)
- op-ed (2)
- Podcast (3)
- Post (2)
- Puerto Rico (1)
- Report (2)
- Reports (16)
- science (80)
- science funding (10)
- science trust (10)
- technology (541)
- testimony (1)
- Working paper (1)
August 15, 2024
Everyone Loses in Google’s Antitrust Ruling
Last week, US District Judge Amit P. Mehta handed down a significant ruling, finding that Google unlawfully maintained a monopoly in general internet search and search text advertising. This decision marks another chapter in a four-year saga initiated during the Trump administration, with Google already signaling its intent to appeal. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is spiking the…
August 15, 2024
Open AI Models: A Step Toward Innovation or a Threat to Security?
As AI models become more advanced, the conversation around their accessibility has intensified. At the heart of this debate is a crucial question: Should the “weights” of large language models be openly accessible to the public, or should they be closely guarded to prevent misuse? In the realm of AI, especially deep neural networks, weights…
August 14, 2024
The Hidden Danger of Security Code Debt: Why Thorough Vetting Is Crucial Before Deployment
Last week’s headline, “Microsoft lashes out at Delta: Your ancient tech caused the service meltdown,” captures the frustration of the intertwined information technology infrastructure challenges. We’ve learned over the past three weeks how the fast-paced world of software updates and the pressure to release new features can overshadow the crucial need to keep security at the…
August 14, 2024
Minimalism Mingling with Maximalism: The Supreme Court on Social Media Regulation
Examining the constitutionality of laws affecting speech on social media platforms, the US Supreme Court seems torn between issuing minimalistic decisions that sometimes even avoid a case’s substantive merits and making a combination of broad pronouncements and tangential observations that provide lower courts and lawmakers with guidance and guardrails. Consider the Court’s 2017 ruling in the First Amendment case…
August 13, 2024
In a Blow to the FCC, Court Suggests Net Neutrality Is a Major Question That Congress Should Decide
Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reclassified broadband as a common carrier service subject to Title II requirements originally designed to discipline the landline telephone system. By doing so, the agency reversed a 2018 decision that determined broadband was better classified as a Title I information service—a decision that itself overturned a 2015…
August 12, 2024
What’s Behind the Antitrust Ruling Against Google?
In the groundbreaking case U.S. v. Google, Judge Amit Mehta of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Monday that the tech giant has been using its agreements with Apple, Mozilla, and wireless companies to become the default search engine, which illegally harms competition. “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted…
August 9, 2024
Revisiting Australia’s Facebook News Contracts Three Years On
In 2021, Australia’s ultimatum to internet media platforms, including Meta (Facebook and Instagram’s parent company) and Google to “voluntarily” settle with mainstream media providers for use of their news content in platform posts, or face mandatory government-sponsored mediation to determine the terms under which such payments would be made led the world. While Google complied, Meta initially…
August 9, 2024
Joe Biden is the “Drill, Baby, Drill” President
I would guess that we are going to hear the phrase “drill, baby, drill” a lot in the next three months. Here at THB, one goal is to ensure that whatever our politics or views on policy, that we work hard to share a common understanding (or at least a shared understanding of disagreement) of…
August 8, 2024
Can We Childproof the Internet? (with Ari Cohn)
Recent child online safety bills have ignited a firestorm of controversy. These emotionally charged proposals aim to shield children from online harm, but they’ve raised serious concerns about potential infringement of First Amendment rights. The current legislative landscape remains uncertain, with various bills at different stages across states and at the federal level. How do…
August 6, 2024
Going Granular with the Tech-Savvy Justice Barrett
“We’re a court. We really don’t know about these things. You know, these are not like the nine greatest experts on the internet,” quipped Justice Elena Kagan in February 2023 during arguments in Gonzalez v. Google. Her crack elicited“laughter” from the audience as the attorneys argued about whether a federal statute barred an effort to hold Google liable for aiding and…