As AI giants build vertically integrated, compute-centric networks, they are bypassing DNS, reshaping routing, and concentrating infrastructure power, placing decades-old internet governance institutions under mounting pressure and raising the prospect of a fragmented, AI-driven Splinternet. more
As the UN turns to AI governance, old lessons from internet governance loom large: multistakeholder rules matter, but sharper risks, geopolitical rivalry and machine autonomy make consensus harder and more urgent than before for all. more
A critique of ICANN's multi-stakeholder model argues that its accountability record, revealed through more than a dozen IRP disputes, shows structural failures that should caution policymakers seeking institutional blueprints for governing artificial intelligence systems globally. more
A debate over aligning internet and AI governance reveals stark differences in origin, incentives and power. While lessons from ICANN's multi-stakeholder model endure, AI's corporate dominance and geopolitical rivalry demand new, bottom-up approaches. more
As policymakers search for an IAEA for AI, lessons from ICANN and internet governance loom large, raising questions about multistakeholder legitimacy, mission creep, technical fragmentation and whether AI demands sector-specific regulation rather than grand global architectures. more
A three-decade natural experiment suggests America's centralized regulatory review fostered far greater wealth creation than Europe's precautionary principle, raising stark questions about whether importing EU-style AI rules would undermine US innovation and prosperity. more
A 2026 outlook charts Internet governance between fear and hope, tracking cyber conflict, digital trade and taxation, shrinking rights, and global AI rivalry, while asking whether multistakeholder cooperation can still steer the network toward stability. more
The Internet is evolving far beyond screens and smartphones. A proposed seven-stage framework anticipates a future shaped by autonomous agents, sensory wearables, global connectivity, and quantum networks redefining how humans interact with the digital world. more
As AI transforms how users search, the domain name is evolving from a traffic destination into a trust signal - crucial for citation, identity, and authority in an Internet shaped by machine-mediated discovery. more
As ICANN prepares to expand the domain name space, calls grow for a public-law framework to govern the DNS root, ensuring global equity, transparency, and accountability in managing the Internet's core infrastructure. more
Do human rights come into the picture when technology and policy work are involved? If so, where? This is a question that has come up multiple times during the last dozen years, and occasionally even before, in Internet Governance discussions. These discussions have included debates on whether human rights were specifically applicable to protocol design or to the organizations developing protocol standards. more
In the same way monarchs are proclaimed - by powerful stakeholders attending a coronation and not objecting - the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) took a mandate last week to coordinate AI Safety worldwide, with most industry leaders and relevant UN agencies were present when it did so. more
In an earlier post, I asked whether electronically steered antennas (ESAs) would replace parabolic antennas in satellite ground stations. I did some research and concluded that it is likely that they will. Next, I discussed the same question with ChatGPT and, while it made several false statements, it made a relevant point that I had overlooked. The relevant addition was positive, but the errors were troublesome, so I decided to try ChatGPT's competitor Google Bard. more
The proposed new European Union (EU) Artificial Intelligence Act has been extolled in the media as a bold action by a major legislative body against the perceived dangers of emerging new computer technology. The action presently consists of an initial proposal for a Regulation with annexes from 2021, plus recent Amendments adopted on 14 June. This regulatory behemoth exists entwined among a multitude of other recent EU major regulations... more
Popular media have recently reported a White House initiative asserting companies' "moral obligation" to limit the risks of AI products. True enough, but the issues are far broader. At the core of the debate around AI -- will it save us or destroy us? -- are questions of values. Can we tell AI how to behave safely for humans, even if in the future it has a "mind of its own"? It is often said that AI algorithms should be "aligned with human values." more