Conference Agenda

Public discussion of AI policy often centers on compute, frontier model capability, and access to large datasets. But many of the most important questions for technology policy arise downstream, in how AI is adopted, governed, and measured inside firms and institutions. This panel examines the economic and legal microfoundations of AI governance, with particular attention to how organizational structure, complementary investments, and regulatory design shape the realized costs and benefits of AI deployment.

The panel has three objectives. First, it will consider how AI should be measured beyond model level inputs, including the role of organizational adoption, workforce adjustment, and intangible capital in determining economic impact. Second, it will examine how governance challenges emerge in practice, especially where internal firm organization, data access, platform control, and system integration affect both innovation and risk. Third, it will connect these measurement questions to legal and policy frameworks in intellectual property, competition policy, and communications regulation.

This topic is highly relevant to the TPRC community because it sits directly at the intersection of technology, regulation, and public policy. TPRC has long provided a forum for understanding how communications and digital technologies create new governance challenges. AI raises a similar set of issues, but conventional discussions often remain too focused on technical inputs or headline market concentration. This panel instead emphasizes the institutional detail that policymakers need in order to evaluate AI’s real economic effects and craft effective oversight. It speaks to ongoing TPRC interests in market structure, innovation, measurement, regulatory design, and the public consequences of digital infrastructure.

The proposed panel brings together a deliberately cross disciplinary set of perspectives. Christos Makridis, Arizona State University and Gallup, will contribute an economic perspective on AI measurement, adoption, and organizational complements, drawing on recent work on integrating AI investment and use into economic statistics. Wayne Leighton of the FCC will bring a regulatory and institutional perspective on how agencies evaluate technological change, market dynamics, and governance tradeoffs. Christopher Yoo of the University of Pennsylvania Law School will contribute expertise in antitrust, communications law, and the economics of digital platforms, with particular attention to how legal frameworks adapt to emerging technologies. Josephine Wolff of Tufts University will add a perspective grounded in cybersecurity, governance, and technology policy, helping connect organizational deployment questions to risk, accountability, and implementation (including given her role as a leader at Tufts and their deployment).

Together, the panel offers diversity in discipline, professional background, and viewpoint. It is designed to move beyond broad claims about AI opportunity or risk and instead identify the organizational and legal mechanisms through which AI creates value, generates frictions, and demands policy response.