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.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Chat Launch Skewed Perception
- Chat-based launch made AI politically salient by looking like a person and triggering cultural fears.
- Reframing AI as advanced computing clarifies regulation as governing cutting-edge computing, not a single mysterious thing.
Policy Is Reactive Not Coherent
- Many AI laws simply restate existing illegality by banning AI-assisted commission of crimes.
- Big legislation usually follows crises, so the current scattershot AI laws reflect diffuse concern rather than coherent reform.
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.