The Narrative: September 15, 2023

Reports on the evolving digital political economy A Victory for Free Speech on Social Media A federal appeals court has upheld a finding that U.S. federal officials violated the First Amendment by coercing or strongly encouraging social-media platforms to censor content. The court also narrowed the scope and targets of...

Webinar Analyzing India Stack

In an era where digitalization is rapidly transforming societies and economies, the question of digital sovereignty has taken center stage. How can nations harness the power of technology while safeguarding their autonomy and interests? India, with its burgeoning digital landscape, is at the forefront of this conversation. As part of...

The Narrative: September 1, 2023

Reports on the evolving digital political economy Human Authorship and AI Images A lot of bad policy about AI is being made because people are overstating its risks. These overstatements usually derive from overestimating the autonomous nature of the AI. Now we are getting some bad law for the same...

The Narrative: Panic over Generative AI Risks; WebPKI GIG-ARTS conference; Oversight Board consultation

15 May, 2023 More Wrong Thinking on Generative AI Risks Civil society is in trouble if the musings of an anonymous philosopher on the LESSWRONG website, most likely by a national security official with access to a closed CISA meeting, reflects the current zeitgeist inside governments concerning generative AI. The...

The Narrative: A Plurilateral export control regime; a cyber social contract is promised; India moves to crackdown on smartphone manufacturers

March 16, 2023 New Dutch semiconductor export controls, a global regime grows In a March 8 letter, the Dutch Ministry of Economic and Development Cooperation and Ministry of Foreign Affairs notified the elected Parliament of its plan to implement additional export control measures for advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, consistent with...

The Curious Case of the Missing CBDC Users

According to the Atlantic Council’s tracker, 17 countries currently have their Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in the pilot phase and 11 countries have rolled it out, with several others in either research or development stage. Three key drivers of interest for the central banks around the world to propose...

The Narrative: IGF, PIR, Ophelia, Digital Cold War, and FTX

UN IGF meets in Addis Ababa The UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) convened this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, using a fully hybrid format. Avoiding Internet fragmentation and digital sovereignty are two of the most popular topics, along with a somewhat contradictory combination of calls for controlling & regulating AI...

The Great Reframing, in Text

For those of you who prefer text to videos, and the enhanced possibilities of editing for clarity and conciseness, we now make available edited transcripts of two riveting discussions on the definition of the field from our conference in The Hague. This includes the initial panel discussion featuring Tatiana Tropina,...