Freedom and Democracy Are Compatible: Why Big Tech Needs to be Regulated.
By Michael Posner
Big Tech has a democracy problem—and Nobel prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu thinks he knows how to fix it. His solution? Smart AI regulation that could help Democrats win back working-class voters while reining in Silicon Valley’s unchecked power. He centers his argument on the need for a new regulatory framework that will ensure greater competition in the tech sector, subsidize socially beneficial applications of AI, and perhaps most importantly, “discourage manipulative uses of AI.”
Unregulated AI apps are like social media platforms on steroids. They’ve been used to generate increasingly realistic deepfake videos, create chatbots that form addictive, parasocial relations with young people, and pioneer new forms of disinformation.
Acemoglu thinks that “the Democratic Party is the natural vehicle for this new agenda, especially since Trump has become close to the oligarchs in the Tech industry.” But in practice, the largest tech companies are parleying their vast economic success into political influence by lobbying members of both parties heavily to avoid meaningful regulation of their sector.
Read the full Forbes article.
___
Michael Posner is the Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance, Professor of Business and Society and Director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.