AI value - does it add up?

In this note the potential contribution of AI to the economy is reconciled with the potential value reflected in the valuation of AI related companies. The contributions and valuations are compared with those for previous technologies - rail in the 1840s in the UK and the dot-com era of computing in the US at the begginng of the 21st Century. 

AI, Copyright and the Public Good

In this paper for Google, Brian Williamson considers the potential of AI, the need for access to a large and representative corpus of training data for AI and the need to protect copyright holders. The paper concludes that publicly available data should be subject to fair use for training purposes and that the focus in relation to copyright protection should be on model outputs rather than inputs.

Aligning regulation and AI

The report for Google considers the benefits of AI and how to adapt regulation to maximise the benefits of AI and address the challenges of AI. 

An internet traffic tax would harm Europe’s digital transformation

Brian Williamson has written a paper for the CCIA, setting out the case against an internet traffic tax.

Are traffic charges needed to avert a coming capex catastrophe?

The net neutrality debate is now gathering steam in Europe, both at the Commission level and in member states. Against this background, four European telcos commissioned a report from AT Kearney, to support their opposition to net neutrality regulation. This report, A Viable Future Model for the Internet, claims that carriers are facing ballooning capex requirements to fund the growth of internet traffic and that the best way to address this structural problem is via traffic charges to online service providers.

In response Robert Kenny has written a paper, Are traffic charges need to avert a coming capex catastrophe?, that takes a critical look at the AT Kearney report, considering it from technical, economic and regulatory perspectives.

It received several positive reviews, and has been cited by BEREC (the umbrella body of European regulators), ARCEP (the French regulator) and the Norwegian Posts & Telecoms Authority. 

You can download the report here.