September 5, 2025
The Adaptability Dividend: Survival in the Age of Glass-Cannon Technology
The founders of the American republic assumed malice would be constrained by material scarcity: Weapons were expensive, destructive power centralized, and the state’s police and military could deter or punish most offenders. That order is collapsing. The diffusion of advanced technologies is improving the destructive capacity of individuals faster than the defensive capabilities of states….
July 29, 2025
America’s AI Action Plan: Analyzing the Strategy for Global Leadership
Event Summary On July 29, AEI hosted an event examining the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan and its implications for businesses, consumers, and national security. The panel, moderated by AEI’s John Bailey, began with initial reactions to the legislation before diving into its detailed provisions. AEI’s Will Rinehart analyzed impacts on data centers and AI…
July 25, 2025
How Does Semiconductor Trade Work?
Key Points How Does Semiconductor Trade Work? How is it that South Korea—one of the world’s most important makers of the chips critical for goods from cars to computers—imports more semiconductors from the United States than it exports? Semiconductor supply chains are immensely complex. Some of the trade dynamics, like America’s unexpected surplus in chip…
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 16, 2025
Federal Data Consolidation: Protecting Civil Liberties in the Digital Age
Event Summary On July 16, AEI’s Shane Tews introduced Palantir Technologies’ Courtney Bowman, the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Alexandra Reeve Givens, the IRS’s Daniel Werfel, and Election Security & Innovation Consulting’s Kim Wyman. Ms. Tews emphasized the critical importance of addressing cyber threats related to data access, use, and control. The discussion began by…
July 9, 2025
Free Speech and Tech Policy at the US Supreme Court, 2025
Event Summary On July 9, AEI hosted an expert panel examining the Supreme Court’s decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, along with broader issues related to online expression, regulatory authority, and technology policy. AEI’s Clay Calvert opened the discussion by outlining the facts of Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, summarizing the majority opinion, and explaining how…
July 9, 2025
A Practical Path for the Tech Exit: A Book Event with Clare Morell
Event Summary On July 9, Ethics & Public Policy Center Fellow and Technology and Human Flourishing Project Director Clare Morell joined AEI’s Timothy P. Carney to discuss her new book, The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones. AEI’s Christine Rosen opened the event with introductory remarks. In her conversation with…
June 9, 2025
A Note on Roger Pielke Jr. and Extreme Greenhouse Gas Scenarios
My AEI colleague Roger Pielke Jr. posted some useful observations recently on the politicized use of extreme greenhouse gas (GHG) scenarios for purposes of the usual climate scaremongering and support of policies that I would describe as ideological opposition to fossil fuels. Roger takes particular aim at an extreme scenario called “Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5,” which Roger…
June 4, 2025
Expect an AI Shock to Change the Job Market, Not Destroy It
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, “The Real Story of the ‘China Shock‘,” economists James J. Heckman (a Nobel laureate at the University of Chicago) and Hanming Fang (University of Pennsylvania) argue that the turn-of-the-century trade disruption primarily shifted jobs from one region to another rather than eliminating them nationwide. Moreover, they contend that Chinese…
May 30, 2025
A Bitter Pill to Swallow: American Drug Shortages
While drug pricing has been a consistent focus for policymakers concerned about access to medicine, another significant barrier to care has grown: drug shortages. Drug shortages have become more prevalent, with causes ranging from problems at manufacturing facilities, compliance with regulation to unpredictable demand. An insufficiently profitable market, particularly for complex generic medicines, discourages investment…