TechTank

A wafer (a thin slice of semiconductor) on display during SEMICON 2020, in Taipei, Taiwan on September 23, 2020.SEMICON Taiwan is the only professional semiconductor exhibition in Taiwan and the second-largest in the world, according to event organizer Semi Taiwan. (Photo by Walid Berrazeg/Sipa USA)No Use UK. No Use Germany.

A typology of the machine learning value chain — And why it matters to policymaking

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Dave Wallace, owner of Silica Broadband, pulls fiber cable few foots at a time as he finishes the 82000 foot in order to provide internet to one of his clients in rural Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., April 19, 2021. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

TechTank Podcast Episode 53: Under Secretary Xochitl Torres Small on expanding access to rural broadband

Nicol Turner Lee

Monday, September 19, 2022

Penguin published books. A new chapter in the 77 year history of the book publisher was written today with a deal to merge the business with rival Random House.

When rhetoric confronts economic reality: Unsupported efficiency claims and unenforceable promises cannot save the book publishers deal

Bill Baer, Herbert Hovenkamp, and Steven Salop

Friday, September 9, 2022

A local surfs the Web in the street in the northern Salamanca town in this December 15, 2006 file photo. Salamanca, 200 miles (316 km) north of the capital Santiago, became Chile's first WiFi town in September. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet hailed the project as the first of its kind in South America and as a major step toward "cutting the gap between rich and poor, between the capital and the regions, between the large and small cities". To match feature CHILE-WIRELESS/ REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado/Files (CHILE)

TechTank Episode 52: Do you know where your spectrum is? The U.S.’s never-ending quest for more bandwidth

Nicol Turner Lee

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

On the screen is an image of HKUST's Twin Campuses in Metaverse, which is what the foreground person sees via the VR headset at the press conference on Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's (HKUST) launching the MetaHKUST, the world's First Twin Campuses in Metaverse. MetaHKUST is a learning area in the metaverse which will connect the university's Hong Kong campus with the one in Guangzhou, enabling students to take lessons without geographical constraints. 28JUL22 SCMP / Xiaomei Chen

Ensuring equitable access to AR/VR in higher education

Nicol Turner Lee, Rashawn Ray, Samantha Lai, and Brooke Tanner

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Acronym GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) designed on an iPhone screen. Montreal (Canada), July 28th, 2019.Sigle GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) forme avec les icones des applications mobiles. Montreal (Canada), le 28 juillet 2019.NO USE FRANCE

Frenemies: Global approaches to rebalance the Big Tech v journalism relationship

Courtney C. Radsch

Monday, August 29, 2022

A women interacts with 'Alter', a machine body with a human like face and hands who learns through interplaying with the surrounding world. Alter was created by roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro and is on display at the 'AI: More Than Human' exhibition at the Barbican Centre in London. The major new exhibition explores the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence.

Patents and AI inventions: Recent court rulings and broader policy questions

John Villasenor

Thursday, August 25, 2022

VIDEO AVAILABLE: CONTACT INFO@COVERMG.COMOne of the world’s most successful NFT artists, the Italian contemporary artist and blockchain pioneer Andrea Bonaceto, is taking over the W1 Curates art display façade to Flannels’ flagship store on London’s Oxford Street from 16 May 2022 with a new interactive installation of his work titled AB Infinite 1. The artwork represents an interactive snapshot of Andrea Bonaceto’s life in the eternal cycle that goes “ab infinite” (Latin for “from infinity”) to the origin, symbolised by the number “1”. As an interactive digital installation AB Infinite 1 invites members of the public to become artists themselves, encouraging viewers to alter the digital artwork through a specially designed AI (Artificial Intelligence) mechanism. Andrea’s purpose-built AI collects viewer interactions online through social media channels and turns these reactions or suggestions into visual responses which then appear as part of AB Infinite 1. This represents a new user-friendly form of AI, which does not require the user to be a software specialist or coder in order to manipulate it. Those viewing the installation on Oxford Street, will be able to watch as AB Infinite 1 morphs in appearance as people interact with the piece on social media. He comments: “AB Infinite 1 represents my most profound work so far. It took me years before I had the courage to open up to people and show my art publicly. Once I did that, I went through a cathartic phase that allowed me to better understand who I am. This process is still ongoing, but I can now safely say it’s not a road I am travelling alone. Through compassion and love we need to come together as a community and become one entity. With this spirit I created the first iteration of AB Infinite 1. I consider this artwork as permanently unfinished, as I hope there will always be someone in the future who wants to be part of it together with me.”To make this even more accessible

The EU’s attempt to regulate open-source AI is counterproductive

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

The logos of Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Pinterest social media app icons on a smartphone.

The Digital Services Act’s lesson for U.S. policymakers: Co-regulatory mechanisms

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Workers install razor wire atop the unscalable fence surrounding the U.S. Capitol in the wake of the January 6th riot and ahead of the upcoming inauguration in Washington, U.S. January 14, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

TechTank Podcast Episode 51: The weaponization of information threatens American democracy. What should we do about that?

Samantha Lai and Darrell M. West

Monday, August 22, 2022

Members of the house depart after the first session of the 117th Congress in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, U.S., January 3, 2021. Tasos Katopodis/Pool via REUTERS

Federal privacy negotiators should accept victory gracefully

Cameron F. Kerry

Friday, August 12, 2022

Houlin Zhao Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) attends a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, May 28, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

The most important election you never heard of

Friday, August 12, 2022

Drawing of hands circling around Earth.

TechTank Podcast Episode 50: How does tech policy fall short in protecting people with disabilities?

Samantha Lai and Alex Engler

Monday, August 8, 2022

EU Code of Practice on Disinformation

Friday, August 5, 2022

Celebrating two years of tech policy with the TechTank Podcast

Brooke Tanner and Samantha Lai

Thursday, August 4, 2022