March 20, 2024
Generative AI’s Napster Moment
It’s likely that LLMs may get worse before they get better. These are not merely necessarily bad consequences, but possible results as an emerging industry matures and the law catches up to technological advancement, producing a new post-disruption equilibrium.
March 19, 2024
Climate Policy Is a Federal Issue
The City and County of Honolulu about four years ago filed a “public nuisance” lawsuit against the energy producers, attempting to hold them liable for the purported effects of anthropogenic climate change in Hawaii, and accusing them of “deceiv[ing]” the public about the consequences of the emissions of greenhouse gases attendant upon the use of fossil fuels….
February 10, 2024
A Lose-Lose Liquefied Natural Gas Pause
The Biden administration’s move to stop approving liquefied natural gas exports is a breathtaking decision to exacerbate climate change and air pollution, betray our allies, and kill clean energy investment. It is a rare, lose-lose policy with potentially catastrophic consequences for America’s geopolitical strength and for billions of people around the world. America’s growing liquefied natural gas exports are a…
January 10, 2024
The Arrival of Post-Industrial Society
There is a certain class of book, the members of which have the ambivalent honor of being remembered for encapsulating the era in which they were written. Such books typically straddle the line between scholarly tome and popular commentary, and are almost invariably purchased more often than read, cited more often than understood. Yet they…
November 10, 2023
A President’s Council On Artificial Intelligence
Last month, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on artificial intelligence. Among the longest in recent decades and encompassing directives to dozens of federal agencies and certain companies, the order is a decidedly mixed bag. It shrinks back from the most aggressive proposals for federal intervention but leaves plenty for proponents of limited government to fret…
October 23, 2023
A Carbon Tax to Finance Child Tax Credit Expansion
A carbon tax is considered by most economists to be the most efficient and effective way to reduce carbon emissions. However, a long-standing political challenge to a carbon tax is the perception that it would disproportionately burden low- and middle-income households relative to high-income households. Many analysts and lawmakers have proposed using carbon tax revenues…
October 20, 2023
Value Needs to be the Next Buzzword in Higher Education
For a long time, advocates and policymakers in the higher education space were fixated on improving “access” to higher education. As a society, we recognized that higher education was a powerful tool for promoting social mobility, and helping people born into lower-income households advance financially and pursue fulfilling careers. We also realized that higher education…
October 4, 2023
Why So Many Americans Are Losing Trust in Science
Dr. Mandy Cohen has been on a national tour. The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she aims to rebuild trust in that troubled agency at a moment when Covid-19 cases are rising again and the Biden administration has begun a new vaccine campaign. She has her work cut out for her. According…