Explain to Shane

New frontier AI models are changing the cybersecurity landscape. As advanced systems become more capable of finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities, the federal government is trying to determine how to protect critical infrastructure and maintain national security. The administration’s June executive order on AI and cybersecurity offers one answer, but it also raises several harder questions. Can the government keep up with rapidly developing models? If officials want to review every model before release, is that process really voluntary? And how can policymakers keep American networks safe without sacrificing innovation?

To unpack what comes next, Shane is joined by Kevin Frazier in a crossover episode with Scaling Laws. Kevin is the director of the AI Innovation and Law Program at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law and a senior fellow at the Abundance Institute. He has testified before Congress on artificial intelligence and emerging technology issues and is a regular contributor to Lawfare.

Artificial intelligence is being integrated into nearly every industry, but how is Congress using AI? As policymakers and their staff work to serve their constituents, can AI be used as a tool to modernize legislative operations, better equip staff, and strengthen our democratic processes? Congress has a unique opportunity to embrace this emerging technology, and failing to do so may leave it behind.
To discuss this, Shane is joined by Aubrey Wilson, managing director of POPVOX Foundation. She has extensive experience on Capitol Hill as a former House legislative assistant, legislative correspondent, and deputy staff director for the Committee on House Administration in the 118th Congress. She was also a member of the R Street Institute’s governance policy and federal affairs team. Her work on the Hill and in academia provides a creative foundation for discussing how Congress is using AI.

There is an invisible resource that powers our smartphones and connects our devices: spectrum airwaves. But regulations governing these airwaves were set decades ago, long before the age of smartphones and autonomous vehicles. With technology changing at a rapid pace, are these regulations for this finite resource outdated? What is the growing importance of airwave spectrum in an economy that is increasingly wireless? And what does a property-rights regime for spectrum look like in practice?
Shane is joined by Professor Thomas Hazlett, author of the best-selling book The Political Spectrum: The Tumultuous Liberation of Wireless Technology, from Herbert Hoover to the Smartphone (2017) and a leading voice in telecommunications, media, and the internet. He is currently the H. H. Macaulay Endowed Professor of Economics and director of the Information Economy Project at Clemson University. He previously served as chief economist at the Federal Communications Commission. His extensive knowledge makes for an excellent conversation.

Information technology and digital services are a rapidly changing sector operating in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. International bodies have struggled to fast-track standards for the digital services industry, and major companies have adopted their own. These trends risk creating a more fragmented world in which digital trust and safety suffer. To protect universal human rights, companies and governments need to speak the same language to identify industry best practices. The question remains: Which international bodies and frameworks are best equipped to address these challenges?
Joining Shane are two experts working on the Digital Trust and Safety Partnership, David Sullivan and Farzaneh Badiei. The Digital Trust and Safety Partnership is an industry consortium focused on delivering best practices for protecting human rights in digital services. David Sullivan is the executive director of the partnership and previously served as the co-chair of the Digital Safety Risk Assessment Framework at the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital Safety. Farzaneh Badiei is head of outreach and engagement at the partnership and is the founder of Digital Medusa, an organization that promotes sound digital governance.

As the digitization of the economy accelerates, the friction points facing the adoption of cryptocurrency are becoming more evident. The benefits of on-ramping to stablecoin are obvious: faster and more efficient money exchanges and improved cross-border transfers. Complicating adoption, however, are the challenges regulators face in assessing the risks associated with blockchain and defining the technology. Add to that the weight of an antiquated banking system and earning the public’s trust regarding their financial security. Ultimately, how do we best position ourselves to harness the benefits of crypto? And how do we make stablecoin accessible to everyone, not just tech-forward corporations?
For this episode, Shane is joined by Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron. At Polygon, Boiron works with all aspects of the organization to scale out the company’s Open Money Stack and integrated services. Boiron is uniquely suited to answer these questions, having previously served as Polygon’s chief legal officer and understanding what policies it takes to move the economy on-chain. His background in both law and business positions him well to tackle the world of blockchain. Also joining the conversation is Nicoletta Kolpakov. She is the director of the Cirrus Institute, where she leads research and policy analysis in blockchain, digital finance, and AI.