new @WSJ article about Colorado's disasterous AI bill & the state's deteriorating business climate. A cautionary tale for other states. In the story, Gov. @jaredpolis agrees with White House that state preemption is needed.
full @wsj article: "Entrepreneurs Flocked to Colorado. Now Red Tape is Driving Some Away"

wsj.com/business/entre…

there really is nothing new under the sun when it comes to moral panics surrounding the rise of new media and concerns about childhood addiction, distraction, and media-inspired misbehavior. Today, I went back through my old 1st edition copy of the 1935 book, “Our Movie Made Children,” by Henry James Forman. The book discusses how motion pictures were supposedly undermining our social fabric, educational system, and the morals of youth.

As I read through Forman’s 91-year old book again, I was reminded how so much media criticism is just one common historical script that involves the same arguments, but with the name of the new media or medium of the day inserted where others sat before. Every argument Forman made in 1935 about motion pictures had previously been made about writing and books, and this same template would be on display again and again over the following century in debates over radio, television, rock and rap music, video games, and now the internet and social media.
As you see just by scanning the table of contents of this 1935 book and its provocative chapter titles, Forman checked the box on just about every fear associated with new media and youth sleep, distraction, sex, violence, crime and delinquency, etc.

W​here does California's sweeping AI regulatory bill (SB 1047) fit among major technology policy backlashes of the past?

​In 30+ years of covering technology policy, I have only twice before seen a proposal generate the diversity of opposition that California’s sweeping AI regulatory bill SB 1047​ has​. It is quite remarkable to see so many people and organizations ​-- many of whom do not agree on much else! -- make such a unified, vociferous stand against a major digital technology proposal like SB 1047. It makes it historically significant in this field. Prior to the battle over California’s SB 1047 AI bill, the last time I witnessed a​comparable level of​ widespread "strange bedfellows" opposition to a major digital technology policy proposal would​ probably be the SOPA/PIPA protests of 2011-​2012. That it perhaps the most intense and diverse opposition to any digital technology proposal that I’ve ever seen.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_…

Konstantine Arkoudas continues to do the absolute best work on AI governance. Part 4 of his series on AI Ethics & Regulation is on "AI Risks vs the Risks of Plain Bad Code," and it is another masterpiece.
konstantinearkoudas.substack.com/p/ai-risks-vs-… in Part 5 in his series, Arkoudas does a deep dive into the problems associated with applying the Precautionary Principle to AI. An epic treatment of the issue. I just cannot recommend his work highly enough.
konstantinearkoudas.substack.com/p/the-precauti…

big day for #artificalintelligence policy w Senate Judiciary hearing at 10EST on regulating #AI, possibly even with a new licensing regime for #artificalintelligence.

Here's link to livestream​: judiciary.senate.gov/committee-acti… [plus there's another AI hearing today] at the AI hearing, I expect the usual amount of heated, panicky rhetoric plus suggestions for being more like Europe w something along the lines of an 'FDA for Artificial intelligence,' licensing for AI providers or NEPA for algorithms.
On that idea... medium.com/@AdamThierer/n…

"Bureaucratic rigidity has supplanted human responsibility. This is a foundational flaw in the operating system of modern democracy. The hierarchy of democratic authority... exists only on paper."
- from an important new essay by @PhilipKHoward: riponsociety.org/article/democr… 2/ Howard recommends many smart reforms of laws & bureaucracies, including the creation of "spring cleaning" commissions that help craft "simpler codes that leave room for officials and citizens to use their common sense in most situations." 👍

1/ It’s very clear now that for a great many conservatives, when it comes to modern media policy, the ends justify the means. Social media & digital tech platforms are simply part of a broader cultural & political war. And so they say sweeping regulatory controls are justified. 2/ some of you will laugh and say: Well that's always been true! No, it actually hasn't. There was genuine movement in the Reagan-era conservative movement away from treating media as a means to an end or a plaything of whichever party was in power at the time.

Conservative responses to the Facebook oversight board decision are now trending even harder in favor of extreme regulatory solutions: breakups, common carriage mandates, or a revived Fairness Doctrine. According, here are several things I've written addressing these proposals... 2/ "When It Comes to Fighting Social Media Bias, More Regulation Is Not the Answer" (via @discourse) discoursemagazine.com/ideas/2021/04/…

excellent new law rev article by @GaryMarchant1 on "Governance of Emerging Technologies as a Wicked Problem." A great framework for understanding tech governance challenges & options. vanderbiltlawreview.org/lawreview/2020… Gary identifies 4 reasons why emerging technologies present major challenges for traditional regulation:
(1) the "pacing problem;"
(2) many lie outside scope of existing jurisdictions;
(3) breadth of application / span many fields;
(4) unprecedented uncertainty about them.

1/ @micsolana’s powerfully worded “Extract or Die” essay notes the growing importance of innovation arbitrage as a modern tech policy issue. He notes how CA's “techxodus” -- the migration of the tech industry out of the state -- is accelerating. solana.substack.com/p/extract-or-d… 2/ I’ve written @ innovation arbitrage in essays & my latest book where I defined it as, “The movement of ideas, innovations, or operations to those jurisdictions that provide a legal and regulatory environment more hospitable to entrepreneurial activity.” medium.com/tech-liberatio…

1/ Remember when critics were panicking about AT&T's acquisition of DirecTV 5 years ago? Well, now T is already looking to sell at considerable loss. wsj.com/articles/at-t-…

It's another powerful example of technological change decimating market power. But the weird thing is.. 2/ history repeated here & neither business exes or regulators learned any lessons. This exact same thing happened to Rupert Murdoch 15 years ago when he & News Corp took a considerable loss on DirecTV, calling it a "turd bird" while spinning it off. dslreports.com/shownews/Murdo…

* Does technology constrain or expand state power?
* Does tech undermine legitimacy of nation-states?
* Can innovation serve as “checks & balances”?

These questions are discussed in Ch. 5 of my new book, "Evasive Entrepreneurs & the Future of Governance" amazon.com/Evasive-Entrep… 2/ Experts featured in this chapter include: @taylor_owen, @tylercowen, @paulmromer, @elidourado, @deboraspar, @cshirky, @benjaminwittes, @mgurri, @anjiecast, @hamandcheese, @JasonKuznicki, @CristieFord_Law, Albert Hirschman, Stephen J. Kobrin, J.P. Barlow & many others.

the current debate over #Section230 and online content moderation has been dominated by misinformation, bad reporting, and outright lies. Let’s set the record straight with 10 or so must-reads on the topic … #1: get yourself a copy of @jkosseff’s “26 Words That Created the Internet,” the definitive early history of #Section230: amazon.com/Twenty-Six-Wor… & @ericgoldman’s “Overview of Sec 230 Immunity” papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… [Also see their archive of 230 cases: jeffkosseff.com/resources]

um, no. This revisionist history of the "golden age" of broadcast regulation & the Fairness Doctrine ignores the troubling history of FCC speech controls & unintended consequences of regulation. That regime gave us limited, bland choices. We got away from that model for a reason.

https://twitter.com/Slate/status/1136952582646185984

for those glorifying the Fairness Doctrine, I encourage them to read the great Nat Hentoff's essay, "The History & Possible Revival of the Fairness Doctrine," about real-world experience of life under the FCC's threatening eye. Read passage below... imprimis.hillsdale.edu/the-history-an…