July 17, 2024
Recovering Science Policy
Key Points Executive Summary The aftermath of a global public health crisis, combined with the rise of populism at home and growing economic and security threats abroad, has persuaded a wide swath of Americans that a more interventionist state is needed to shore up, promote, or protect particular sectors of the economy. This has led…
June 5, 2024
How New Graduates Can Thrive in a Workplace Dominated by AI
Dwight Eisenhower’s advice about plans and planning is still relevant today On June 6, the world will mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings and the 40th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s 1984 “the Boys of Pont du Hoc” speech honoring those who helped turn back the Nazi threat on the beaches of Normandy. We are now as far from Reagan’s speech as the speech was…
May 15, 2024
Automation Isn’t Just One Thing: Insights from Two Census Datasets
Two recent datasets from the Census help to illuminate what’s occurring in robotics and in artificial intelligence adoption. While they have their limitations, both the Annual Capital Expenditures Survey (ACES) for robotic equipment and the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) AI supplement offer valuable information on the progress of automation. Annual Capital Expenditures Survey…
April 25, 2024
The AI ecosystem is complex and dynamic: Its regulation should acknowledge that
Last Thursday, Meta announced the newest iteration of its large language model (LLM), Llama 3. The newest model will aim to dislodge OpenAI as the market leader through various improvements driven by what Meta claims to be “high quality” data training sets and new computer programming capabilities. Meta’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, predicts that future versions of…
April 2, 2024
April 11, 2024: The Return of Crypto: Building the Next Era of the Internet
Event Summary On April 11, AEI’s Jim Harper was joined by venture capitalist and Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Chris Dixon for a conversation about the nature of the internet and the next iteration of the web, as discussed in Mr. Dixon’s new book, Read, Write, Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet. Mr. Harper and…
March 1, 2024
Permitting the Energy Transition
Abstract The United States now has a landmark climate and clean energy law: the Inflation Reduction Act. The Act may provide more than a trillion dollars in spending on new clean energy technology—over $8,000 for every household in the United States. What will Americans receive for this titanic investment? The answer largely turns on how…
October 29, 2021
The SEC’s Climate ‘disclosure’ Gambit
Inside the Beltway, most priorities are driven by the perceived political imperatives of the moment rather than by any set of actual principles. The ongoing herculean effort by the Securities and Exchange Commission to promulgate a rule forcing public companies to disclose the “risks” of climate change for their investors is no exception. It is clear that this rule will be followed…
October 1, 2021
Manufacturing Consensus
After having been told for over a year that there was a scientific consensus that Covid had a natural origin — and that any suggestion of a possible lab leak in Wuhan was tantamount to a xenophobic conspiracy theory — it now appears that there is not, and never was, such a consensus. And the…
April 30, 2021
The ‘temporary’ Biden Pause on Fossil-fuel Leasing on Federal Lands
During the presidential campaign Joe Biden offered the utterly incoherent promise to ban “new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters.” Soon after assuming the presidency, however, he stated clearly that “we’re not going to ban fracking” and, presumably, other forms of fossil-fuel production on federal lands. So, which is it? Answer: The “ban” will not…
October 29, 2018
Politicized Law Enforcement and the ExxonMobil White Whale
The latest lawsuit against ExxonMobil (EM), filed by Acting New York State Attorney General Barbara Underwood, is straightforward: Got that? Underwood actually is arguing that EM should not concern itself — or its investors — with (1) the aggregate effect of GHG policies on prospective worldwide demand conditions for its energy products, and (2) the…