Your tickets for our summit next month
Register for our 2022 Policy Summit below! Plus, read our thoughts on Lina Khan's FTC, NASA's Moon to Mars Objectives, and more.
Artificial intelligence tools created over the last few years have seen a renaissance as social media users realize that we can use them to mine some truly incredible content. Back in April, I wrote about DALL-E, which has since generated its first real magazine cover. Now, everyone seems to be fixating on a “natural-language system” unveiled back in 2020 called GPT-3. The concept? You type in a prompt or a snippet of text, and the AI riffs on that input. Sometimes, what it generates scares users. Often, hilarity ensues.
For one thing, GPT-3 is freakishly skilled at emulating posting styles that are popular on Reddit and other online fora — there’s even a Twitter account highlighting this special capacity. One favorite on there is a made-up news report about Trump mocking Prometheus (yes, the Greek mythological figure). That’s just a taste of how creative you can get. Try it for yourself sometime!
Upcoming Event. Join us on July 20 for TechFreedom's 2022 Policy Summit! The event will kick off with a discussion of “Truth, Misinformation, and the Role of Experts in an Era of Crisis.” In our second panel, we’ll discuss the proper role for “expert” agencies: What does it mean for them to be democratically accountable to an increasingly mistrustful public? Our third panel will compare and contrast the long-running debate over whether broadband providers should be classified as common carriers with the more recent debate over whether social media are common carriers. How does either implicate the First Amendment? And to round out the day, Corbin Barthold will host a special live recording of the Tech Policy Podcast with guest Quinta Jurecic of the Brookings Institution. They’ll discuss the work of the January 6 Committee, efforts to combat “the Big Lie” on the Internet, the scourge of online harassment, and more. More panel details will be released soon. Although this is a hybrid event, please join us in person if you can!
FTC. Lina Khan has big plans for the FTC, for antitrust policy, and for the economy at large. Her boldest moves are yet to come. And yet, as Corbin explains this week in a new City Journal article, Khan is already hitting major obstacles, both inside and outside her agency. Corbin discusses Khan’s difficulties with her staff (her relationship with FTC employees is reportedly “in tatters”); her struggles in court (a high-profile antitrust case against Facebook, as well as an expected case against Amazon, are both exceedingly weak); and the folly of pursuing her “neo-Brandeisian” program in a time of supply-chain woes, high inflation, and anticipated recession. Read Corbin’s article here, and promote it on Twitter here. Corbin has been keeping a close eye on Khan’s FTC. Catch up with his previous pieces at City Journal, Law & Liberty, and Truth on the Market. And don’t miss his recent Tech Policy Podcast interview with FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips!
Next Monday, June 27, Berin will be participating in a conference organized by Concurrences and CCIA, regarding the rulemaking authority of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Berin will explain why the Congress of 1914 couldn’t possibly have intended for the FTC to make rules governing all unfair methods of competition—and what it would mean, in practical terms, for the FTC to be able to function as, essentially, a second national legislature. TechFreedom has been leading the argument that the FTC has no legal authority to issue binding rules. As we’ve explained in our comments to the agency, UMC rulemaking would be inconsistent with both the FTC Act and the Constitution’s separation of powers. Register for free to join us either in DC or online.
Space. NASA has invited Jim to Houston next week to participate in a workshop on NASA’s Moon to Mars Objectives. He’ll expand on the comments we filed two weeks ago, showing why NASA has lost its way on getting back to the Moon and on to Mars by having pure science as the only driver for the program, and ignoring the commercial space revolution occurring under its own nose.
Follow us on Twitter! Corbin @CorbinKBarthold; Bilal @BilalKSayyed; Andy @AndyJungTech; Santana @SantanaBoulton; Jason @JasonKuznicki; me (Rachel) @MillionthRachel; Berin @BerinSzoka; Ari @AriCohn.