Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

| August 20, 2026 For centuries, policymakers and the public have worried that automation could replace human workers. Yet past waves of automation have done more than eliminate jobs; they have reshaped how workers perform tasks and created opportunities for higher-skilled work. These concerns, once centered on steam-powered machines or vehicle manufacturing, now focus on artificial intelligence (AI), which plays an increasingly important role in every industry.

WASHINGTON—Following the successful landing of a first-stage booster by Chinese rocket company Landspace, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) released the following statement from Policy Analyst Ellis Scherer: “The United States’ primary advantage over China in space innovation, the reusable rocket, has been erased. Landspace is now the third, and the only non-U.S. company, to achieve this feat.

For nearly a decade, Canadian AI policy focused on research: fund the institutes, keep the talent, and celebrate that Canadian researchers helped invent machine learning. The 2017 Pan-Canadian AI Strategy barely mentioned adoption. Canada’s new AI strategy, AI for All, corrects that mistake by putting adoption at the centre and promising nearly $200 billion in productivity gains.

| August 13, 2026 Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon under the aegis of Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is conducting a Market Study on ‘Qualitative and Quantitative thresholds for Big Tech companies and Core Digital Services (CDS)’.

WASHINGTON—With the bipartisan CHATBOT Act advancing out of the Senate Commerce Committee and states continuing to introduce chatbot safety legislation, a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, outlines which chatbot safety policies policymakers should pursue—and which they should avoid—to better protect children while preserving children's access to the benefits AI chatbots can provide.

| August 10, 2026 Source: Josh Lerner, et al., “Chinese Sputnik Moments?” (working paper 35551, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 2026). Commentary: China’s rapid rise to technological leadership and innovation has been viewed by many policymakers and experts throughout the 21st century as more of a façade than reality.

By Meghan Ostertag and Stephen Ezell | August 19, 2026 Introduction and Summary 1 New Drug Development 2 Industry Funding of University R&D. 3 Translational Research. 4 Expand and Modify SBIR and STTR. 7 International Scientific Collaboration. 8 Production of STEM Talent 8 A Comprehensive Competitiveness Assessment For America’s Biopharmaceutical Industry 9 Conclusion.

WASHINGTON—Following Pennsylvania Gov.

WASHINGTON—Following ABC’s lawsuit against the FCC to stop an early license renewal process for eight affiliated stations, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) released the following statement from ITIF Policy Analyst Ellis Scherer: ABC’s lawsuit is right to call out the FCC's license review actions as an attempt to punish broadcasters for their editorial judgment.

This episode of the Creative Discussion podcast features a recent debate between ITIF's Joseph V. Coniglio and Joel Thayer of the Digital Progress Institute on the question of whether the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) would help or hurt innovation and consumer choice. The debate was moderated by veteran tech journalist Nancy Scola and is re-aired here with no substantive edits. Watch the live recording here. United States v.