Publications: Robert D. Atkinson

The U.S. government needs to do what many nations around the world are already doing by leaning into rail technologies such as positive track control and automated track inspection, not resisting them on behalf of special interests.

AI is supposedly going to make America’s current level of income inequality explode. That will not happen. The idea rests on far-fetched assumptions about monopolies, mass job loss, and winner-take-all dynamics that AI won’t change.

AI is a general-purpose technology with tremendous promise. But U.S. AI leadership and adoption is by no means assured, because there is intense international competition.

To avoid losing the techno-economic trade war with China, U.S. policymakers must rewrite the social contract at the heart of America’s 50-year-old system of financial capitalism by rebalancing the incentives to drive long-term investments in U.S. national power industries.

EU regulators have targeted U.S. tech firms for years, demanding digital sovereignty, stronger consumer protections, platform openness, and structural remedies for dominance. The United States should apply that same logic to “Big Spread”—Nutella’s market power warrants investigation, regulation, and potential breakup.

Fixing the EU’s productivity, innovation, and competitiveness crisis requires a fundamental political reorientation. Until it makes that shift, expect more reports, more tinkering, and more decline.

Boosting U.S. competitiveness in national power industries is necessary, but not sufficient to avoid losing to China. America also must take measures to slow the PRC’s progress toward global dominance. This report provides more than 100 actionable recommendations for the administration and Congress. Western allies should take many of the same steps.

AI isn’t about to wipe out entry-level jobs. The data says otherwise, history contradicts it, and productivity gains will create new opportunities.

A poll built on leading questions, false choices, and fearmongering does not reflect actual public opinion on AI. It shows how to optimize disinformation for partisan messaging.

Despite what the apostles of artificial general intelligence warn, there is no reason to think AGI will get here anytime soon, if ever.