Regions

There is no free lunch to be found by imposing base contributions on foreign online undertakings to fund the government’s preferred content. The Commission should reckon with the economic realities of its proposal rather than obscuring them behind anti-foreign rhetoric.

Canada is capturing less than half of its technological potential, allowing for groundbreaking research and innovations to sit unused or to be scooped up by foreign companies.

Rob Atkinson appeared on the Hub Dialogues podcast to discuss ITIF’s new Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness, what explains Canada’s poor performance on advanced industry sectors, and why Canadian policymakers should listen more to “productionists” over economists.

The artificial intelligence market in Canada is still in its early stages but is growing rapidly and becoming increasingly competitive. At this juncture, there is no clear evidence of market failure, substantial barriers to entry, or exclusionary practices that would necessitate intervention.

Canada needs a productivity commission. But instead of emulating Australia’s model, which is driven by orthodox neoclassical economics, it should take guidance from “productionists” with a deep understanding of firm, industry, and technology dynamics.

Proposed changes to Kenya’s competition regime will hinder, not help its digital economy. Rather than impose substantial changes based on the false premise that digital markets require special treatment, Kenya should use existing enforcement tools to police its growing digital markets.

ITIF’s submission focuses on the ITC’s interest in recent developments in the digital economy for key SSA markets, including national and regional regulatory and policy measures and market conditions that affect digital trade.

When attempting to evaluate the effect that a policy intervention can have on development or innovation, researchers and policymakers routinely look to short-term impacts, both out of urgency and because of the difficulty in maintaining contact with participants over several years.

Over the last decade, mobile money services have brought banking to populations that have lacked formal financial services by allowing users to manage money on their mobile phones. First launched in Kenya in 2007, 96 percent of Kenyan households now use mobile money and can withdraw funds in physical currency from 110,000 agents across the country.

Meet Arthur Zang, a 29 year-old Cameroonian engineer who invented the handheld Cardio-Pad, the world’s first medical tablet facilitating heart examinations and remote diagnosis. The Cardio-Pad is a touch-screen tablet device for conducting cardiac tests such as electrocardiograms in remote locations, and then sending the results to cardiologists in city centers often hundreds of miles away.

Shifting from evidence-based law enforcement to heavy-handed digital regulation could stifle the innovation Korea needs and lead to various unintended consequences. As the Korean proverb goes, it’s unwise to “burn down the hut to catch a bedbug.”

Korea thankfully lags behind the West in its techlash “thinking,” but it is by no means free from this corrosive force. Both the West and Korea need a more positive and balanced perspective that doesn’t make technology the source of today’s societal ills.

Taking a cue from the EU does not make sense for Japan, because Brussels’ regulations were adopted in large measure as a response to the bloc’s failure to produce any leading digital companies of its own. Japan, by contrast, is home to many of the world’s top technology companies.

Rather than allow India’s dynamic high-tech and startup ecosystem to continue to flourish, the Draft Digital Competition Bill follows the path of overbearing competition policy taken by the EU, which lacks any leading digital firms. India should instead privilege the U.S. model of markets and dynamism.

India has the potential to play a much more significant role in global semiconductor value chains, provided the government upholds its investment policies, maintains a conducive regulatory and business environment, and avoids measures that create unpredictability.

Only a full commitment from the European Union and United States can counter China's economic predation and preserve a market-based system. Criticism that doesn't include China's subsidization, IP theft, and product dumping isn't serious.

David Moschella appeared on The China Desk with Steve Yates to discuss the historically unique challenge China poses to the United States and the West as the world’s largest market, the world’s largest supplier, America’s fiercest competitor, and a geopolitical and military rival—themes that pervade Moschella and Rob Atkinson’s book Technology Fears and Scapegoats.

A recent working paper found that AI and robotics directly promote technological innovation while also bolstering the impact of science and technology investments on technological innovation.

Stephen Ezell appeared on the Energi Talks podcast with journalist Markham Hislop to discuss ITIF’s assessment of Chinese innovation in the nuclear industry.

Though China built upon a foreign base of technology, it has become the world’s leading proponent of nuclear energy. Chinese firms are well ahead of their Western peers, supported by a whole-of-government strategy that provides extensive financing and systemic coordination.

Only a full commitment from the European Union and United States can counter China's economic predation and preserve a market-based system. Criticism that doesn't include China's subsidization, IP theft, and product dumping isn't serious.

Following the European Commission notifying Meta of its preliminary finding that the social network’s advertising model violates European law, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) Vice President Daniel Castro issued the following statement.

With the AI Act set to take effect soon, the focus now shifts to implementing this complex legislation. Central to this effort is establishing the AI Office, mandated to coordinate the Act's application, conduct AI safety research, develop Codes of Practice, and address compliance issues. However, there are concerns that bureaucratic challenges could hinder the Office, potentially stalling European AI innovation.

The EU is at a strategic crossroads when it comes to techno-economic policy. As the new Commission and Parliament take office, they must choose between fidelity to the transatlantic alliance and “strategic independence,” as well as between maintaining regulatory hostility toward large tech companies and unleashing innovation in Europe.

The Irish Data Protection Authority (DPA) requested Meta pause its plans to train AI on public posts from its users last week. This request, instigated by complaints and pushback from the advocacy group NOYB (“none of your business”), is a shortsighted move that threatens to stifle innovation in developing AI systems.

Given the potential for countries to reshore and automate previously outsourced IT occupations, the Global South’s IT services appear vulnerable to the displacing effects of AI. Yet, existing policy responses may be insufficient to address that challenge.

President Biden’s 2023 executive order on artificial intelligence (AI) directed the State Department to work with other agencies and stakeholders to develop guidance for identifying and managing human rights risks associated with AI. As the State Department prepares this guidance, it should emphasize that in many cases, the risk of inaction—the missed opportunities to use AI to improve human rights—presents the most significant threat, and it should prioritize deploying AI to support and enhance human rights.

Congress and other stakeholders would do well to ignore SOPA as a relic of the past and instead focus on those stakeholders who want to engage on the substantial and growing body of evidence from around the world.

A new working paper estimates that cross-border patenting from the Global North to the Global South would have been about 43 percent lower in the absence of globalization.

Daniel Castro appeared on the Intended Consequences podcast to discuss how countries around the world are going about regulating artificial intelligence and stimulating innovation.

Mexico's newly elected president, Claudia Sheinbaum, can reverse President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's anti-innovation policies toward genetically modified maize, and improve the lives of small farmers across Mexico.

The current scope of University-Industry (U-I) collaboration in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) opens opportunities for research to progress in innovative directions.

Regulation in the digital sector should only be necessary to remedy market failure that cannot be addressed by the current legal framework, which simply is not true.

As Brazil crafts its own Digital Markets Act in the mold of the EU’s, it should be aware of the potential shortcomings and unsubstantiated advantages associated with such wide-ranging economic regulation within the digital market landscape.

Innovation plays a critical role in improving public health and in overcoming global health challenges. The call for LATAM Health Champions, which ran from February 5 to March 5, 2024, received more than 60 applications proposing innovative health solutions to a wide range of health challenges. Here, the top 20 are highlighted.