February 10, 2025
Resilience: The New Challenge for Digital Systems Policy
Yesterday around 11:00 am, while working from home preparing course material for the next university semester, all Microsoft cloud-related connection to my university was severed. No OneDrive access to my files, no Teams to contact the information technology helpdesk, no Outlook to email my manager about my predicament …. I was truly isolated. Fortunately, the…
February 10, 2025
Unshackle States to Deliver on Broadband Promises
The Biden administration’s handling of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program exemplifies why Americans turned to Donald Trump to be their president: big promises, bureaucratic bloat, and little to show for either. This presents an opportunity for Trump to deliver what others only promise. For its first three years, BEAD did…
February 10, 2025
DeepSeek’s Direct Challenge to Antitrust Orthodoxy
To understand what went wrong with antitrust during the Biden administration, look no further than former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Lina Khan’s take on DeepSeek’s launch of R1, an artificial-intelligence (AI) platform. Rather than see the moment for what it is — a competitor arising by bypassing Biden’s supposedly insurmountable barriers to competition — she sees this…
February 10, 2025
The Specter of a Trade War
I haven’t written about tariffs at all, leaving it to Scott Lincicome to cover the ins and outs of tariff policy for Dispatch readers. But with the escalating trade war and a lot of open questions, I thought I would take a crack at trying to steelman President Donald Trump’s tariffs. While his rhetoric often seems impulsive, Trump’s push for tariffs…
February 7, 2025
Lessons from China’s DeepSeek: A Wake-Up Call for AI Innovation
In just a week, Chinese startup DeepSeek’s latest reasoning model erased a trillion dollars in market value, sparked new security concerns, and upended conventional wisdom about AI development. This forced policymakers and tech leaders to confront the implications of an affordable, high-performance model created by a geopolitical competitor. DeepSeek unveiled DeepSeek-R1, an advanced large language model…
February 7, 2025
Lessons from China’s DeepSeek: A Wake-Up Call for AI Innovation
In just a week, DeepSeek’s latest reasoning model erased a trillion dollars in market value, sparked new security concerns, and upended conventional wisdom about AI development. This forced policymakers and tech leaders to confront the implications of an affordable, high-performance model created by a geopolitical competitor. Chinese startup DeepSeek unveiled DeepSeek-R1, an advanced LLM that matches…
February 7, 2025
Taking On Government Bureaucracy (with Shane Bigelow)
DMVs are notoriously slow, primarily because of outdated systems that constitute the foundation of their operations. Nevertheless, these processes can be greatly improved by adopting modern, efficient solutions. Such innovations not only enhance DMV operations but also offer valuable insights into the modernization of other sluggish government functions, potentially streamlining services across various sectors. Below…
February 6, 2025
When Anti-Press Ascendancy Meets FCC Public Interest Regulation
Let’s start with an understatement: President Donald Trump isn’t happy with the way most American journalists are doing their jobs. During a December press conference, he proclaimed “we have to straighten out the press. Our press is very corrupt, almost as corrupt as our elections.” About six weeks earlier, Trump sued CBS, trying to straighten it out. The complaint…
February 5, 2025
Age Verification Laws vs. Parental Controls: Why the Legislatures, Courts, and Tech Aren’t on the Same Page
Technology is an integral part of our daily lives. Whether we connect with friends, seek instant information, or find entertainment, the online world is intricately woven into our life experiences. However, policymakers are encountering an increasing number of parents demanding regulations as their answer to protect America’s children. Some lawmakers in Congress and state legislatures…
February 5, 2025
The Innovation Imperative: Crossing the Valley of Death
Millions of Americans face diseases that lack treatment options, while many more face impairments in independence as a result of inadequately treated medical conditions. Innovation in the life sciences offers the opportunity to cure debilitating illnesses as well as to promote independence and increased convenience of care delivery. However, pharmaceutical and medical device innovation each…