Panelists: Andrew DeVore, Kat Duffy, Adam Thierer
Moderator: Alan Raul
Key takeaways from the panel:
1. The digital world encompasses AI, human rights, national security, intellectual property, and more. Regulatory action that lumps the digital world together is ineffective and has unintended consequences.
2. Regulating rapidly evolving technologies like AI is exceedingly difficult, particularly when the full impacts and use cases are not yet known.
3. Regulators must recognize that rules involve tradeoffs between, in this case, promoting innovation and addressing potential harms or risks from digital technologies.
4. Any regulatory approach should be adaptable to rapidly evolving technologies and involve collaboration between government, industry, and international partners, although panelists did not agree on what that meant. Some panelists advocated for flexible, industry-led “soft law” approaches that allow for innovation while addressing specific risks. Others argued for more government involvement and formal regulatory frameworks.
5. Some argued that the US market-driven approach has fostered more digital innovation, although others cautioned against oversimplifying this narrative. Panelists also expressed concern about the fragmented nature of US regulation, with state-level initiatives potentially complicating national coherence. The Biden administration’s executive order on AI was discussed as an attempt to provide federal direction, though its effectiveness and impacts are not known.
You can watch videos or read full transcripts of each panel, including this one, on TPI’s YouTube channel. Below is a live illustration of this panel provided by graphic artist Karina Branson of CoverSketch. Stay tuned for more panel summaries from 2024’s Aspen Forum!
