The AI Act Should Be Technology-Neutral
The AI Act’s broad definition of AI penalizes technologies that do not pose novel risks. To resolve this, policymakers should revise the definition of AI to only apply to specific AI approaches that create significant challenges.
Digital Innovation Isn’t Undermining Societal Trust; It’s the Other Way Around
Defending Digital Series, No. 14: America’s declining societal trust will harm its innovation ecosystem, because the next phase of digital growth will require collective confidence in technologies that operate in the public sphere.
Building on Uncle Sam’s “Beachfront” Spectrum: Six Ways to Align Incentives to Make Better Use of the Airwaves
The federal government controls large swaths of the electromagnetic spectrum, but the current system for managing it lacks effective ways to incentivize agencies to use it efficiently. Congress and the Biden administration should promote good stewardship of spectrum and better enable it to power both federal missions and the commercial wireless ecosystem.
Big Tech Needs to Better Defend Itself
Defending Digital Series, No. 13: Although many of today’s accusations against Big Tech are unfair, the technology industry should do more to protect itself. Pushing back against its critics, better aligning itself with America’s national interests, becoming more politically neutral, and effectively addressing long-term societal challenges would surely help.
The Cost of Data Localization Policies in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Vietnam
Restrictive data policies coming into effect in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Vietnam will measurably increase import costs and reduce trade volumes, undermining the broader economic role of data. Policymakers should change course or else be left behind in the race for digital development.
Click Here for Adderall: Fixing Telehealth Advertising and Services To Prevent Stimulant Misuse
Policymakers should both make permanent many of the COVID-19 era policies that allow medical providers to see patients remotely and enact provisions allowing for the practice of telemedicine over state lines. However, policymakers should also take further steps to ensure that telehealth providers offer and abide by the same standard of care as in-person treatment.
History Shows How Private Labels and Self-Preferencing Help Consumers
Private label products have been important for consumers and the economy since the 19th century because retailers can sell them at lower prices with greater efficiency than brand-name alternatives. Legislation that prevents retailers from putting their own products front and center—either online or on store shelves—would jeopardize those benefits.
How to Mitigate the Damage From China’s Unfair Trade Practices by Giving USITC Power to Make Them Less Profitable
Section 337 of the 1930 Tariff Act allows the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) to bar imports when domestic industries suffer harm due to unfair competition. Congress should expand the law to better address the unfair trade practices China uses to capture market share in advanced industries at America’s expense.
Why Congress Should Restore Full Expensing for Investments in Equipment and Research and Development
The tax law allowing firms to fully expense their research and development (R&D) costs expired at the end of 2021, and full expensing of equipment costs will begin phasing out in 2023. This decreases firms’ incentive to invest in these key drivers of economic growth and competitiveness. Congress should restore and make permanent full expensing for these investments.
The Transatlantic Subnational Innovation Competitiveness Index
Innovation ecosystems are increasingly complex and diverse, but there are common markers of core strength. In this report, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the German Economic Institute, the Institute for Competitiveness, and the Macdonald-Laurier Institute benchmark 96 states and regions across Germany, Italy, the United States, and Canada.
The Effect of International Proposals for Monitoring Obligations on End-To-End Encryption
European and U.S. policymakers have proposed imposing monitoring obligations on Internet intermediaries to improve online safety. Despite their best efforts, these proposals risk undermining users’ privacy by eliminating the use of end-to-end encryption. Therefore, policymakers should not pursue them.
How the IT Sector Powers the US Economy
The information technology (IT) sector makes an outsized contribution to the U.S. economy as a leading exporter that creates high-paying jobs, including for non-college-educated workers, while producing highly innovative products and services that drive broad-based growth, counteract inflation, and improve people’s quality of life.
A New Frontier: Sustaining U.S. High-Performance Computing Leadership in an Exascale Era
Continued leadership in high-performance computing (HPC) as it enters the exascale era remains a key pillar of U.S. industrial competitiveness, economic power, and national security readiness. Policymakers need to sustain investments in HPC applications, infrastructure, and skills to keep America at the leading edge.
How Policymakers Can Thwart the Rise of Fake Reviews
As businesses compete for customers in the digital economy, some use deceptive tactics to manipulate consumer reviews about their goods or services, or those of their competitors, including by posting fake reviews. These fake reviews can damage honest companies’ reputation and deceive consumers into purchasing goods or services of substandard quality.
The Digital Markets Act: A Triumph of Regulation Over Innovation
The Digital Markets Act presents three fundamental challenges as it nears adoption: First, it will increase regulatory fragmentation. Second, its disproportionate blanket obligations and prohibitions will be economically detrimental and legally controversial. Third, it will be difficult to implement, as some of its provisions clash with other European regulations.
The Hamilton Index: Assessing National Performance in the Competition for Advanced Industries
Compared to major competitors, U.S. output in key advanced industries is weak and declining. Congress and the administration should launch an economic “moon shot” initiative committing to increase the concentration of these industries in the U.S. economy by at least 20 percentage points relative to the global average within a decade.