AI detractors believe the potential risks of AI outweigh the benefits. But this ignores the overwhelming examples of how AI is having a positive impact in many areas of the economy and society. If EU policymakers want to foster rapid development and adoption of AI they should follow the innovation principle which says that when technological innovations benefit society and pose modest and not irreversible risks, government’s role should be to pave the way for widespread innovation while building guardrails, where necessary, to limit harms.
Europe
June 30, 2020
The Center for Data Innovation submitted feedback to the European Commission’s roadmap titled “Digital Services Act package: Deepening the internal market and clarifying responsibilities for digital services.”
June 15, 2020
A “French Airbnb” is a bad idea. It is based on politically biased motives and a misguided application of industrial policy, seeks to dominate a market that is longer up for grabs, will fail for lack of credibility and, even if it were to succeed, it will not add value for consumers.
June 14, 2020
The Center for Data Innovation submitted a response to the public consultation of the European Commission on the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence—A European Approach.
June 12, 2020
ITIF submitted comments focusing on the Commission whitepaper’s proposal for an ex ante conformity assessment framework to verify and ensure that certain mandatory requirements applicable to high-risk applications of artificial intelligence are met and how this would act as a barrier to trade.
June 9, 2020
As Congress considers a phase 4 stimulus package, it would be a mistake to focus only on short-term recovery measures, as important as they are.
May 31, 2020
The Center for Data Innovation submitted a response to the public consultation of the European Commission on the European Strategy for Data, which aims to build a single market for data so it can be more competitive in the global data economy.
May 13, 2020
Europe is trying to get other nations, including in Latin America, to adopt its regulatory regime in order to reduce its own competitive disadvantage.
May 4, 2020
Editor's Note: A version of this article was published by French media outlet Contrepoints on April 30.
April 20, 2020
Emigration, especially of high-skilled workers, is often presumed to be a major problem for developing nations. However, emigrants can drive innovation in their home country by driving up the costs of wages, and thus the returns to labor-saving inventions. A new study supports this idea, comparing the rates of emigration and patenting between communities in Sweden in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
April 13, 2020
It is commonly assumed that the wealth and other benefits that highly innovative firms produce are concentrated among high-skilled workers, since they are the ones who are most likely to be innovating. But a new study casts doubt on this presumption, using matched employee-employer data from the United Kingdom.
March 25, 2020
ITIF's Center for Data Innovation hosted a video webinar with experts from industry and government to discuss Europe’s near-term AI priorities.
March 11, 2020
There is much to like in the European Commission’s newly released Industrial Strategy for Europe, especially as it recognizes the need for more competitive advanced-technology industries and stronger efforts to push back against unfair foreign trade practices. The document gets many things right, recognizing, among other things:
March 10, 2020
WASHINGTON—Following the European Commission’s unveiling of a “New Industrial Strategy for Europe,” the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think and for science and technology policy, today released the following statement from ITIF President Robert D. Atkinson:
March 2, 2020
The growth of artificial intelligence has stoked fears that industries beyond manufacturing could be significantly automated. This underscores the need to study the evidence about modern automation, especially because the facts frequently contradict common concerns.
February 24, 2020
Germany implemented a minimum wage of €8.50 in 2015, impacting 15 percent of the country’s workers. A new study puts to rest concerns that the wage increases would kill jobs, showing that the policy had no impact on the unemployment rate of low-income workers.
February 19, 2020
A natural experiment in the United Kingdom found that giving a generous R&D tax credit to small and medium-sized enterprises has a significant effect on both research spending and patents, and these advantages have spilled over to technologically related firms.
February 13, 2020
The Center for Data Innovation has submitted comments in response to the public consultation of the European Commission, which is gathering feedback to inform its gender equality strategy 2020-2024.
February 6, 2020
ITIF’s Center for Data Innovation hosted a discussion exploring the future of AI-enabled manufacturing, and what European policymakers should do to help Europe thrive.
January 21, 2020
By the end of the Cold War, West Germany’s productivity was 3.6 times larger than East Germany’s. Utilizing the complete set of industrial information provided to East Germany between 1970 and 1989 by informants in West Germany, researchers have estimated that East Germany’s productivity would have been 10.3 percent lower in 1989 without this espionage.
January 14, 2020
ITIF hosted an expert panel discussion featuring European Commission, Deputy Director-General for Research and Innovation, Signe Ratso, on the thinking and inspiration behind the European Innovation Council, how it will work in practice, and how it is expected to change the face of European innovation over the next decade.
January 13, 2020
The eCommerce Directive—a critical building block of the EU’s digital economy—is in need of modernization, but updates should continue to remove obstacles to online commerce and provide legal certainty to businesses and citizens.
January 6, 2020
The has been a growing disparity across the globe between the governments that are choosing to prioritize innovation and those that aren’t. Recent analysis reflects this, comparing the growth of public R&D funding between 2008 and 2016 across eight major countries.
December 19, 2019
The early designers of the Internet quickly realized that as the number of domain names flourished, there was a need for tracking domain name owners to resolve questions and conflicts that might arise. To that end, they created WHOIS, a public database with the names, phone numbers, email addresses, and mailing addresses of registered domain owners and operators.
December 2, 2019
Automation boosts labor productivity, which is key to long-run economic growth. A new study examines the impact of automation on labor productivity in nine manufacturing industries across 12 European countries from 1995 to 2005, comparing the number of robots in use in an industry with the amount it invests in non-ICT capital.