Publications: Morgan Stevens

Despite later investigations finding automatic train operations (ATO) was not to blame for a 2009 accident—and decades of operation without problems—officials have yet to reinstate the technology in the rail system, leaving it and the region’s many commuters reliant on human workers operating trains manually.

President Biden has claimed that, largely due to advancements in AI, “we’ll see more technological change in the next 10 years than we’ve seen in the last 50 years and maybe even beyond that.” However, it's highly unlikely that tech advancements in the next decade will outpace the achievements of the past five decades.

Significant public concerns about AI have raised the risk that Congress might step in and pass anti-scraping legislation. But a legislative intervention would be a mistake, especially given that the private sector has previously resolved a similar issue through voluntary measures.

The AI industry is emerging and evolving rapidly, and neither the FTC nor the DOJ has been able to point to any evidence of anticompetitive behavior. Rather than invent or speculate about problems that do not exist, competition regulations should allow the AI industry to continue to develop new and innovative products without unwarranted restrictions.

Given the benefits of automation in logistics facilities, policymakers should enact legislation that provides warehousing and storage companies with the resources they need to innovate and incorporate robots into their operations, supports workers throughout job transitions, and promotes resiliency in U.S. supply chains.

The FTC recently announced plans to add a series of sanctions to a 2020 privacy order with Meta that would inhibit Meta’s ability to offer services to children or launch new products. In attempting to unilaterally revise the 2020 order, the FTC is unjustifiably and excessively obstructing legitimate business practices, bypassing the proper legislative process to create new privacy rules, and diminishing its ability to use consent decrees in the future.

As consumers continue to buy more goods online, logistics facilities will face greater demand to deliver goods across the country in a timely manner. Policymakers should promote robotic adoption and innovation to improve labor productivity, worker safety, delivery times, and supply chain resiliency.

A robot tax is a misguided policy that would inhibit productivity growth that could otherwise make U.S. companies more competitive, create higher-paying jobs, and improve quality of life for all Americans.

As generative AI continues to rapidly improve in terms of its performance and capabilities, it is clear the technology will have important uses in many sectors. Despite its potential, the legal sector continues to resist AI in order to protect lawyers rather than integrating it as quickly as possible to benefit clients.

As more companies use robots, many worry about the effect of automation on workers. The good news is that robots bring many benefits to both companies and workers. In fact, encouraging robot innovation and adoption supports the U.S. workforce and economy in four ways.