Research & Policy Primers
Last Place in the AI First Economy
"[This primer offers] a framework for the institutional, political, and economic shifts that underpin AI adoption. [The authors] argue that the sprint to create the so-called AI-first economy must be understood not as the logical march of progress, but as a series of deliberate economic decisions that risk harming entire populations of workers in ways both old and new." By Alexandra Mateescu, Aiha Nguyen & Sanjay Pinto at the Data and Society Research InstituteThe Big AI State
"This policy brief finds that the US government is engaging in extraordinary levels of market intervention in order to bolster the AI sector. In time, we may be seeing the emergence of a new industrial policy — an incipient “Big AI State” — by which substantial US capacity is dedicated to sustain AI-related investments that prop up core economic sectors: tech, fossil fuel, real estate, and asset management." By Brian J. Chen at the Data and Society Research InstituteThe Current Landscape of Tech and Work Policy in the U.S.: A Guide to Key Laws, Bills, and Concepts
"In this guide, we give an overview of current U.S. public policy that regulates employers’ use of digital workplace technologies. Based on a review of over 350 bills and laws across all U.S. states and at the federal level, we identify nine major topics of proposed or enacted legislation. For each topic, we also describe key concepts establishing worker rights and employer responsibilities around digital technologies." By Mishal Khan and Annette Bernhardt, UC Berkeley Labor Center