Mark MacCarthy
Washington, D.C.
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Georgetown University
Communication, Culture & Technology
Institute for Technology Law & Policy
Brookings Institution, Center for Technology Innovation
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Articles by Mark MacCarthy
It's Time to Regulate the AI Development Process
President Donald Trump gestures to Elon Musk as he speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, Tuesday Sept. 29, 2026, after meeting with top executives of AI firms. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) The dangerous experiments AI companies engaged in over the summer opened a new dimension of needed AI regulation — legal measures to ensure the safety of the AI development process itself.
Prospects for US-China Cooperation to Reduce AI Risks
Artificial intelligence is emerging as both a powerful source of competition between the United States and China and an area where the two countries may have a shared interest in reducing risk.
US Government’s AI Risk Review Should Apply to Open Weight Models
People visit the booth of Kimi, an LLM developed by the Chinese startup Moonshot, during the World AI Conference in Shanghai, China, Monday, July 20, 2026. (FeatureChina via AP Images) Little is known about the Trump administration’s secretive new voluntary safety review program for AI models. Yet one salient detail that is in the public domain is that it apparently excludes open weight models.
Antitrust Uncertainty and AI Security Collaboration: A Targeted Bipartisan Proposal
The clock is ticking as the U.S. government scrambles to prevent the cybersecurity capabilities of frontier AI models from being misused against government operations, critical infrastructure, and U.S. private sector networks. With Chinese labs only months behind U.S. companies, advanced cyber capabilities similar to those displayed by Mythos and GPT-5.6 may soon be available to criminals and intelligence services around the world.
Early Edition: August 4, 2026
Sign up to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here. A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news: IRAN WAR A cargo ship reported being hit by a projectile overnight off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the UKMTO maritime security agency. Maritime sources told Reuters this morning that the vessel struck near Hormuz was a dry bulk ship. Its crew had to abandon the vessel, and one seafarer was missing, the sources said.
Congress must pass a new federal law on AI governance
At a recent G7 summit in Évian, France, the heads of state of the world’s leading democratic economies sat down alongside the chief executives of a handful of private artificial intelligence (AI) companies whose market valuations rival the GDP of most nations on Earth. This marked a profound shift in the traditional G7 agenda, which is usually dominated by trade agreements, macroeconomic stability, and pressing global conflicts.
How the US and China Can Cooperate to Reduce Urgent AI Risks
By: Mark MacCarthy & Carl Schonander (Brookings Institution TechTank) Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required. yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today. By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.
If export controls are an AI kill switch, the process needs reform
The administration’s June 12 export control order to Anthropic effectively forced the company to recall its most powerful AI models — Mythos 5 and Fable 5. Government officials seemed to think these two AI models could enable attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure that were otherwise unavailable to adversaries.
Opinion - If export controls are an AI kill switch, the process needs reform
The administration's June 12 export control order to Anthropic effectively forced the company to recall its most powerful AI models — Mythos 5 and Fable 5. Government officials seemed to think these two AI models could enable attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure that were otherwise unavailable to adversaries.
How the US and China can cooperate to reduce urgent AI risks Original
In the aftermath of the recent meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that China and the U.S. would “set up a protocol” regarding “best practices for AI to make sure nonstate actors don’t get a hold of these models.” On May 19, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun confirmed the two leaders agreed to conduct an “intergovernmental dialogue” on AI.
How the US and China Can Step Back from the Battle for AI Model Supremacy
President Donald J. Trump participates in a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok) The US and China are engaged in a battle for AI supremacy, with each country attempting to secure advantage over the other. The upcoming US dialogue on AI governance offers an off-ramp from this escalating conflict that both sides should be eager to embrace.
The pledge to protect ratepayers from AI data center costs needs enforcement
It is amazing how in less than a year a consensus is emerging on the need and potential methods to protect residential and other electric utility ratepayers from increases driven by unprecedented data center demand on the electric grid. A year ago, there was not even agreement that a problem existed. Despite news reports of rising electric rates across the country, data center advocates were asserting that rates would go down—not up—as more large data centers came online.
The Supreme Court’s Decision in Trump v. Slaughter is Misguided, But Changes Little
In Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court overturned the 91-year-old Humphrey’s Executor decision, thereby giving the president for the first time unfettered authority to fire members of independent agencies at will.
Congress Should Pass AI Law to Reassure the Public
The dome of the US Capitol building. Justin Hendrix/Tech Policy Press At the dawn of the internet in 1996, Congress adopted Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which generally shields online platforms from liability for content posted by their users. Europe soon followed suit. This deregulatory exemption from normal legal liability is widely considered to have made the creation of the modern internet with its many positive attributes possible.
Ball game’s over—the US is out of the AI chip market in China
A recent New York Times headline says it all: “Trump Approved a Nvidia Chip for Sale in China. Beijing Doesn’t Want It.” The administration endured substantial domestic criticism for approving sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips to 10 Chinese companies, but because of Beijing’s continuing objections, as of mid-May not a single H200 chip had been sold to Chinese companies.
Why College Graduates—And Pope Leo—See Through the AI Sales Pitch
The Two Cultures by Zoya Yasmine / Better Images of AI / CC by 4.0 Perhaps former Google CEO Eric Schmidt should have known better than to glorify the AI revolution in front of its intended victims, but he didn’t. When he recently went before the graduating class at the University of Arizona to praise the “architects of artificial intelligence” he was booed.
Trump-Xi Summit in Beijing Should Make Shared AI Risks a Priority
President Donald Trump greets Chinese President Xi Jinping before a bilateral meeting at the Gimhae International Airport terminal, Thursday, October 30, 2025, in Busan, South Korea.
What happens when AI companies compete with their customers?
As the big artificial intelligence (AI) companies standardize their general-purpose models, they are rushing to the application level to capture value and recover the enormous infrastructure expenditures needed to train and operate general-purpose AI models. In doing this, the companies are beginning to compete with their own most valuable customers: the AI app developers working in established software companies and in startups.
If superintelligence isn’t imminent, the Trump administration may be right to loosen advanced chip export controls
When President Trump announced in December 2025 that his administration would approve export licenses for Nvidia’s H200 chip and other advanced chips, China hawks from the Biden administration exploded in outrage. “This decision is nuts,” former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told The New York Times. “We are literally handing away our advantage. China’s leaders can’t believe their luck.” But the reality is more nuanced.
Mandated TikTok Transparency is Needed to Protect US Users
One national security concern that motivated the law mandating the transfer of TikTok from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to a US controlled entity was the possibility that the Chinese government, through its control of ByteDance, could use TikTok for influence operations or other propaganda campaigns to shift US public opinion in a pro-China direction.
AI data centers and average electricity users need separate checks Original
Under pressure for rising electricity rates as a result of data centers that demand massive amounts of power, AI developers are now maintaining that rates for the average consumer will go down as future data centers come online.
The European Union Changes Course on Digital Legislation
Over the past decade, the European Union has assembled an edifice of legislation on privacy, platform competition, online content, and artificial intelligence (AI), firm in the belief that establishing a comprehensive and stable digital regulatory environment would encourage technology-driven growth and innovation in Europe. Over the past year, however, doubt has emerged in Brussels about the presumed virtuous circle of regulation, growth, and innovation.
Policymakers Have to Prepare Now for When the AI Bubble Bursts
In chapter 12 of his 1936 groundbreaking treatise, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, economist John Maynard Keynes wrote, “When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done.” Commentators have begun to recycle (such as here and here) this famous indictment of casino capitalism in discussions of today’s AI bubble. Policymakers are not going to tell the private sector what investment decisions to make.
America’s energy bills shouldn’t fund Big Tech’s data centers
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright recently sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directing it to open a rulemaking to facilitate access to the electrical grid by both new generating facilities and AI data centers. The proposed rule would make data centers “responsible for 100 percent” of certain costs they impose on the energy system.
Opinion - America’s energy bills shouldn’t fund Big Tech’s data centers
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright recently sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directing it to open a rulemaking to facilitate access to the electrical grid by both new generating facilities and AI data centers. The proposed rule would make data centers “responsible for 100 percent” of certain costs they impose on the energy system.
Opinion - America’s energy bills shouldn’t fund Big Tech’s data centers
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright recently sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directing it to open a rulemaking to facilitate access to the electrical grid by both new generating facilities and AI data centers. The proposed rule would make data centers “responsible for 100 percent” of certain costs they impose on the energy system.
Boom or bust: How to protect ratepayers from the AI bubble
Electricity rates across the country have increased 30% since 2020 and are rising at twice the rate of inflation, particularly in areas where large data centers are operating and under construction. In Virginia, a hub for data center development, Dominion Energy has petitioned the state utility commission to raise base rates by 15% over the next two years, and a company spokesman projected that the average residential utility bill will increase by 50% by 2039 due to new data center openings.
The Limits of Antitrust Remedies in the Google Search Case
The United States federal judge presiding over the Google search trial issued his remedies decision on September 2. He did not force a divestiture of the industry’s most popular browser, Chrome, and allowed Google to continue paying for favorable distribution of its search service, although not on an exclusive basis. He wrote that the market had become more competitive with the entry of AI competitors such as OpenAI into a transformed search market.
AI Companies Should be Liable for the Illegal Conduct of AI Chatbots
AI chatbots are not people. They don’t have consciousness and independent agency. So, they cannot be held responsible for their illegal conduct. But the companies that provide them to the public should be responsible. For instance, Meta should be liable if Meta AI, its chatbot, provides advice, guidance, or recommendations that would create liability if provided by a human.
Why AI demand for energy will continue to increase
DeepSeek, a Chinese startup company, announced the release of its AI reasoning model, DeepSeek R1, in January. It appeared to perform at a level comparable to OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o at a fraction of the cost. Within days, DeepSeek R1 and DeepSeek’s non-reasoning model V3 became the most downloaded apps in the United States and around the world. In response, the manufacturer of the most advanced AI chips, Nvidia, lost nearly $600 billion in market cap.
Setting the standard of liability for self-driving cars
To set policy around AI liability, it might be useful to try to resolve the question in a particular AI use case such as self-driving cars rather than approach the problem in a comprehensive way. Who should be responsible for injury or damage caused by self-driving cars and what should be the standard of liability? This is likely to become an increasingly urgent issue as self-driving cars become more and more prevalent on the nation’s roadways and indeed around the world.
Opinion - Tech companies building massive AI data centers should pay to power them
The projected growth in artificial intelligence and its unprecedented demand for electricity to power enormous data centers present a serious challenge to the financial and technical capacity of the U.S. utility system. Appreciation for the sheer magnitude of that challenge has gotten lost as forecast after forecast projects massive growth in electric demand over the coming decade.
Are AI existential risks real—and what should we do about them? | Brookings
In March 2023, the Future of Life Institute issued an open letter asking artificial intelligence (AI) labs to “pause giant AI experiments.” The animating concern was: “Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?
Back to the Future for Section 230 Reform
Reform of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is on the agenda for both Congress and the Biden administration this year—all the more so after the renewed discussion around technology platforms sparked by the U.S. Capitol riot and President Trump’s subsequent deplatforming from major social media platforms. Just recently, members of Congress and congressional aides reported conversations with the White House on how to regulate the tech titans, including reform of Section 230.
Privacy protections in the Google search case
Last year Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled that Google monopolized the search market. In the current proceeding, he must decide what remedies to impose to restore competition. One of the remedies proposed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) is a data access requirement that would force Google to share its user search data with rivals and potential rivals. The goal is to overcome the scale advantages that give Google an insuperable lead in providing high-quality search results.
Do AI systems have moral status?
In March, researchers announced that a large language model (LLM) passed the famous Turing test, a benchmark designed by computer scientist Alan Turing in 1950 to evaluate whether computers could think. This follows research from last year suggesting that the time is now for artificial intelligence (AI) labs to take the welfare of their AI models into account.
The Privacy Challenges of Emerging Personalized AI Services
One of the salient features of the emerging world of advanced AI services will be an extreme emphasis on personalization. In order for an AI chatbot to give users answers that fully respond to their enquiries, it must have detailed user profiles specifying their interests, preferences, and needs. To perform the tasks assigned to it, an AI agent must have even more detailed user profiles.
Copyright alone cannot protect the future of creative work
It might seem that we have seen this movie before. New tech companies seek to build their product on the backs of existing copyright owners, taking their work without permission or compensation. After a blizzard of lawsuits and perhaps some legislative reform, a new equilibrium emerges accommodating the new technology and protecting copyright owners. But—as with so much involving artificial intelligence (AI)—this time is different.
Trump’s Antitrust Agencies Stay the Course in the First 100 Days
Mark MacCarthy is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University in the Graduate School’s Communication, Culture, & Technology Program and in the Philosophy Department. He is the author of Regulating Digital Industries: How Public Oversight Can Encourage Competition, Protect Privacy, and Ensure Free Speech (2023). Tech company executives bet heavily on a Donald Trump presidency, apparently expecting that he would grant relief from pending antitrust cases against them. But it has not happened.
Would Content Collusion Among Social Media Companies Be Such a Bad thing?
Mark MacCarthy writes that the case law supports Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson’s charge that collaboration by social media companies on content moderation practices would be anticompetitive collusion. However, the author argues that open and transparent cooperation might actually benefit a troubled internet, and Congress should consider carving out a content-neutral antitrust exemption for platforms in the way it has in the past for broadcast networks.
A technical AI government agency plays a vital role in advancing AI innovation and trustworthiness
The current AI Safety Institute is a vital new agency currently established on a temporary basis in the Department of Commerce’s National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). This agency is key to U.S. leadership in the development of secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence. The Trump administration should work with Congress to continue the scientific and technical work of the institute.
AI Safety Met the Guillotine in Paris. Good Riddance
Mark MacCarthy is adjunct professor at Georgetown University in the Graduate School’s Communication, Culture, & Technology Program and in the Philosophy Department. On February 10-11, French President Emmanuel Macron hosted an AI Action Summit in Paris. It was the third major international conference seeking a consensus on global governance of frontier AI models. The supposed triumph of AI innovation over AI regulation received most of the media coverage.
One year later, how has the White House AI Executive Order delivered on its promises?
The Biden administration’s approach to the governance of artificial intelligence (AI) began with the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, released in October 2022. This framework highlighted five key principles to guide responsible AI development, including protections against algorithmic bias, privacy considerations, and the right to human oversight.
Google’s antitrust troubles demonstrate the need for a digital regulator
Matt Stoller recently made the case that Google’s antitrust troubles mean that the company might be broken up. He is enthusiastic about the prospects for innovation if a shrunken Google were confined to a narrow market such as general search. But he wonders whether our current institutions are up to the task of supervising such a radical restructuring of a tech giant.
Google’s Move to Retain Cookies Puts the Onus on Regulators
Google’s announcement in late July that it is dropping its plan to eliminate third-party cookies in its Chrome browser suggests regulators must strengthen institutional mechanisms for balancing the demands of promoting business competition and protecting consumer privacy.
Self-driving cars promise safety, but we aren't there yet
Real self-driving taxis without safety drivers are already here, on the roads in select U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. As political commentator Matt Yglesias said in a recent blog, “autonomous taxis are no longer a hypothetical future technology. They exist, and you can ride in them.” They have even become a tourist attraction in San Francisco.
Overturning the Chevron Doctrine is Not the Disaster Some Fear
Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturning the Chevron deference appears to be a defeat of the administrative state by an out of control “judicial oligarchy” which, as law professor Barry Friedman has described, is how political reformers used to describe reactionary courts during the progressive era.
Around the halls: After Chevron, what’s next?
On June 28, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) handed down its decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, ending four decades of “Chevron deference” and imperiling the regulatory state as we know it. The doctrine in question is the result of Chevron U.S.A. v. NRDC (1984), in which the Court held that, where statutory ambiguities exist, federal judges must generally defer to the interpretation of regulating agencies.
Restoring an open internet requires softer China policy
A common reaction among tech policy and internet freedom advocates to the upcoming ban of TikTok in the US is to reject it as a step back from the traditional US internet policy of openness, free speech, and innovation. How, they say, can the US argue for these traditional values internationally when the US is so blatantly violating them itself?
Restoring an open internet requires softer China policy
A common reaction among tech policy and internet freedom advocates to the upcoming ban of TikTok in the U.S. is to reject it as a step back from the traditional U.S. internet policy of openness, free speech, and innovation. How, they say, can the U.S. argue for these traditional values internationally when the U.S. is so blatantly violating them itself?
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