News Clips

Despite the fact that semiconductors are more important to the world than ever, the share of U.S. students graduating with electrical engineering degrees that are essential for many semiconductor jobs has declined significantly in the past two decades, Foreign Policy noted, citing an ITIF study.

This new platform is particularly noteworthy, according to Stephen Ezell, vice president of global innovation policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington-based technology think tank.

The Hill quoted Ashley Johnson in story on how generative AI tools are testing Section 230. Johnson said the “most likely scenario” is if generative AI is challenged in court, it “probably won’t be considered covered by Section 230.”

December last year, ITIF confirmed that “a one-unit increase in an industry's data restrictiveness is associated with a 0.5 percent decrease in the following year's trade—including a 0.6 percent decrease in imports and a 0.9 percent increase in import prices.”

“If the United States wants to have a regulatory environment for AI that is flexible, responsive, and adaptable to emerging risks, it should lean into the sector-specific approach it has taken to regulation,” Hodan Omaar, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Center for Data Innovation, told Mallory. “Federal regulators are the best placed to regulate issues in different domains because they have industry-specific knowledge.”

The Center for Data Innovation said after yesterday’s hearing that the US doesn’t need a new regulator for AI. “Just as it would be ill-advised to have one government agency regulate all human decision-making, it would be equally ill-advised to have one agency regulate all AI,” said Hodan Omaar. “I don’t think it’s pragmatic, and it’s not what they should be thinking about right now.”

Politico quoted Hodan Omaar in a story on the congressional hearings on AI. The most concrete idea to emerge on Tuesday, a new agency to license the most powerful AI platforms — supported yesterday by senators of both parties as well as Altman himself — was dismissed afterward as “baffling” by a key tech lobbyist, and “seriously flawed” by Hodan Omaar, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Data Innovation, a nonpartisan think tank.

Cities all over the country have taken strides to modernize with emerging technologies that make communities smarter, safer and more connected. But there are always concerns about personal privacy. A recent report from ITIF examines this tension, urging smart city leaders to balance any potential benefits to society against privacy concerns.

"A one-size-fits-all regulator makes no sense given AI touches so many complex industries," tweeted Daniel Castro, vice president of ITIF. "AI in healthcare is different than AI in transportation. A general purpose AI regulator is not going to understand intricacies of different industries."

“I think the emerging consensus in the Republican Party is going to be fighting it on one front, which is to restrain Chinese capabilities,” said ITIF President Rob Atkinson. “That's a lot cheaper [than simultaneously trying to boost U.S. capabilities domestically and restraining China’s capabilities internationally].”