The Next Decade of Tech Policy: Challenges and Opportunities Ahead 

The Next Decade of Tech Policy: Challenges and Opportunities Ahead 

Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy’s Tech Policy: The Next Ten Years conference in October 2024 brought together leading scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to examine the future of technology policy, revealing both significant progress and persistent challenges in governing emerging technologies, while highlighting multiple pathways to achieve meaningful change. 

The conference featured two main panels, a keynote address by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, and a showcase of current research by CITP fellows and students.

You can read the full report here. Additionally, videos of the conference are available on the CITP event webpage.

A Shifting Landscape

The tech policy landscape has transformed dramatically over the past decade. 2014 represented a markedly different era when the power and responsibility of tech companies were not yet clear to the public and policymakers. Today, there’s growing recognition of technology’s societal impacts and the need for effective governance frameworks.

As CITP Director Arvind Narayanan noted, 2024 is a good time for tech policy in the United States: despite persistent challenges, there has been meaningful progress in enforcement, state-level regulation, and corporate responsibility. He said that while there are myriad challenges to address, this also means there are many opportunities for competent, well-trained, and enthusiastic people to enter into the space. 

The Changing Nature of Technology Policy

Tech policy has quickly become a central area of policy from the U.S. and international governance perspective. A fundamental insight that emerged throughout the conference was how technology policy has evolved from a specialized domain to what Alondra Nelson termed both a “vertical” and “horizontal” concern. As Dr. Nelson explained, “Today and in the next decade, nearly every domestic and international policy issue is at the same time a technology policy issue.” This spans numerous domains across society. In healthcare, questions of electronic health records and AI in clinical practice have become central concerns. The agricultural sector grapples with AI-driven crop optimization and bioengineering advances. Criminal justice faces complex questions around facial recognition and algorithmic decision-making, while national security contends with state-level surveillance and geopolitical competition.

The impact extends into everyday life: educational institutions must balance technological innovation with student privacy, while climate and energy policy increasingly depends on green technologies and energy efficiency measures. In housing, algorithmic systems are reshaping access to mortgages and rental properties. Labor rights are being redefined by automation and algorithmic management. Perhaps most critically, our democratic processes face new challenges around election security and information integrity.

Persistent Challenges

Despite notable progress in tech policy, significant challenges persist. At the federal level, the United States remains an outlier due to its lack of comprehensive data privacy legislation. This gap is compounded by government agencies’ critical shortage of technical expertise, leading to overly broad policy approaches that often miss crucial technical details. Meanwhile, policy discussions tend to be dominated by large tech companies, leaving smaller firms without a voice despite their important role in the ecosystem. The landscape is further complicated by the shift of technological innovation from government to private sector leadership, creating new challenges in oversight and transparency – especially as civilian and military AI applications become increasingly intertwined. Adding to these concerns, the Supreme Court’s recent rulings on administrative law have introduced new uncertainties about regulatory authority, making it even more challenging to effectively govern emerging technologies.

Looking Ahead

The path forward requires both immediate actions and long-term strategic initiatives. Short-term priorities include building technical capacity in government and supporting state-level innovation. Longer-term efforts focus on fostering multi-stakeholder engagement, strengthening enforcement mechanisms, and developing alternative regulatory models.

FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel emphasized the importance of transparency in maintaining public trust, particularly regarding AI applications. The agency has taken steps to require disclosure of AI use in certain applications and introduced a new Cyber Trust mark labeling program for internet-enabled devices.

As technology policy becomes increasingly central to all aspects of governance, success in the next decade will require new models that can adapt to rapid technological change while maintaining democratic oversight and public accountability. This demands sustained effort from all stakeholders – government, industry, civil society, and academia – working together to create a technological future that serves the public interest.

Iterative Approaches

To regulate the tech space, conference speakers noted the need to develop different collaborative strategies for crafting laws designed for shorter duration and to be more adaptable. This includes, for example, moving away from the assumption that good laws should last decades. Otherwise, policies can get outdated quickly when anchored to a moment in time, as seen with the Communications Act of 1996. Speakers also pointed to the virtues of adopting flexible and iterative versioning approaches similar to NIST’s AI frameworks with strong technical foundations and definitions.

Thinking creatively about alternative regulatory approaches, the challenge ahead is clear: technology policy is no longer a specialized domain but rather is relevant across all policy areas. The next decade of technology policy will require sustained effort through multiple channels to achieve meaningful change. In particular, success will require new models of governance that can adapt to rapid technological change, strong technical capacity within government institutions, effective collaboration between public and private sectors, robust mechanisms for public participation and oversight, and international cooperation on shared challenges. This will require all stakeholders – government, industry, civil society, and academia – to work together to create a technological future that serves the public interest.