Scaling Laws The Ivory Tower and AI (Live from IHS's Technology, Liberalism, and Abundance Conference).
Sep 30, 2025
Neil Chilson, Head of AI Policy at the Abundance Institute, and Gus Hurwitz, Senior Fellow at Penn Carey Law, dive into the challenges of AI governance. They discuss the muddled state of AI policy and the reactions driven by past regulatory mistakes. The duo critiques academic selection biases that skew tech policy debates, while exploring the need for engineers to understand legal complexities. They call for interdisciplinary collaboration in education and emphasize the importance of hands-on AI experience to inform better regulations.
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Social Media Hangover Drives Haste
- Policymakers fear repeating perceived mistakes from social media regulation and rush to act on AI.
- That 'social media hangover' fuels reactionary, vibes-driven policy aiming to avoid past errors.
Old Debates, New Doomers
- Longstanding interest groups and academic networks recycled past tech-policy debates into AI conversations.
- A new and unusual 'doomer' contingent amplified existential narratives about AI, including from inside industry.
Regulation Can Cement Incumbents
- Industry leaders sometimes promote extreme risk narratives while asking to be regulated to entrench incumbency.
- Public-private partnership can be beneficial, but self-serving regulation risks cementing market power.