Explain to Shane

Cable companies are now offering mobile service, wireless carriers are competing for home broadband customers, and satellite providers are even expanding their offerings. As these historically distinct markets converge, policymakers face new questions about competition and connectivity. What regulatory reforms would help bring broadband to unserved communities while keeping service affordable? Why does access to unlicensed spectrum matter for the future of Wi-Fi? And how could China’s efforts to shape global spectrum policy affect American technology companies?
To discuss this, Shane is joined by Sam Love, chief policy and strategy officer at NCTA—The Internet & Television Association. Previously, he co-chaired Invariant’s technology and competition government relations practice and served as a senior policy advisor to then-Senator Cory Gardner, managing the senator’s work on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

“American Dynamism” is the idea that by retooling workers, rebuilding our country’s industrial backbone can take a decade rather than generations. In this episode, we explore what the practical requirements of this work would be. How can commercialized nuclear energy help meet rising energy demand across critical industries? What’s the most pressing issue in the American regulatory environment? And if American Dynamism works, what will America look like in 2035?
To discuss this, Shane is joined by David Ulevitch, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he leads the firm’s American Dynamism team. Previously, he founded OpenDNS, which he sold to Cisco, and has since backed companies like Anduril, Flock Safety, and Radiant. His technical and policy background makes for an engaging episode.

On a global scale, we have seen a rise in the development and enactment of legislation that bans minors from using social media to keep them safe. But what does early evidence of these bills tell us about whether they are working as intended? What's the case for age-appropriate spaces and content instead? And should chatbots be regulated similarly?
To discuss this, Shane is joined by Josh Tabish, senior director for Canada at the Chamber of Progress. Previously, he served as the director of policy and advocacy at the Canadian Internet Registration Authority as well as a Ford Foundation / Media Democracy Fund Technology Exchange Fellow for Fight for the Future. His extensive portfolio covers domestic and international technology policy issues.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the legal and tax sectors of business. However, neither the legal nor the tax establishments may be ready for what’s coming. There's a real tension here. On one side, lawyers are using AI to draft filings and manage their work, and some firms are building their own AI systems. On the other hand, the legal world remains slow to adopt this new tool. What does that look like in practice? Would more consistent, data-driven outcomes make justice fairer, or merely more uniform? And when an AI system contributes to a legal decision, who is accountable if it gets something wrong?
To discuss this and more, Benjamin Alarie joins Shane. Benjamin is a leading voice in this debate and the coauthor, with Samuel Becher, of a new book, Superjustice: Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. He originated the concept of the “legal singularity,” the idea that advances in artificial intelligence could eventually make the outcomes of legal disputes almost perfectly predictable and perhaps even automate much of the practice of law. Ben is also the cofounder and CEO of Blue J, which uses the latest large language models and a vast database of authoritative tax content to deliver high-quality, source-driven answers to challenging tax questions.

Employees at several leading AI companies are asking the US government and international bodies to slow the development of frontier models. Doing so would put governments in the position of deciding when new models are safe enough to release. Yet policymakers also warn that the United States must move faster than China and that prerelease reviews could stifle innovation. Are these two goals in tension with one another? Can existing laws and liability rules address AI harms without giving governments control over which models reach the market? And can any international institution realistically govern a technology spread across the entire digital economy?
To discuss this, Shane is joined by Milton Mueller and Adam Thierer. Milton is a professor and director of the master of science in cybersecurity program at Georgia Tech University’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy. He is also the cofounder and director of the Internet Governance Project at Georgia Tech. Adam is a resident senior fellow with the technology and innovation team at the R Street Institute and a visiting senior fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.