Regulating AI: A Thoughtful Approach?
Mike Mireles
Thursday, 19 February 2026
Regulating AI: A Thoughtful Approach?
Tom Wheeler at the Brookings Institution has published an excellent short paper titled, “Governing the AI Transition: Lessons from the 1996 Telecommunications Act.” Mr. Wheeler states, in part:
The relevance of the Telecom Act of ’96 to the policy challenges of AI is not because AI is telecom, but because technological transitions produce bottlenecks that become the birthplace of durable private power.
In 1996, Congress sought to legislate a transition by prioritizing competition. Now, in the AI era, we face an even more consequential transition. The stakes are not merely market structure or consumer pricing. The stakes extend to labor markets, intellectual property, national security, democracy, and the control of the tools of knowledge itself.
The paper is available, here.
