Scaling Laws: A Year That Felt Like a Decade: 2025 Recap with Sen. Maroney and Neil Chilson
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Connecticut State Senator James Maroney and Neil Chilson, Head of AI Policy at the Abundance Institute, join Kevin Frazier, the AI Innovation and Law Fellow at the University of Texas School of Law and a Senior Editor at Lawfare, and Alan Rozenshtein, Associate Professor at Minnesota Law and Research Director at Lawfare, for a look back at a wild year in AI policy.
Neil provides his expert analysis of all that did (and did not) happen at the federal level. Senator Maroney then examines what transpired across the states. The four then offer their predictions for what seems likely to be an even busier 2026.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Lawfare Podcast. I'm Alan Rosenstein, Associate Professor of Law at the University of |
| 0:06.7 | Minnesota, and a senior editor and research director at Lawfare. Today we're bringing you something |
| 0:11.6 | a little different, an episode from our new podcast series, Scaling Laws. It's a creation of |
| 0:16.8 | Lawfare and the University of Texas School of Law, where we're tackling the most important |
| 0:21.0 | AI and policy questions, from new legislation on Capitol Hill to the latest breakthroughs |
| 0:25.8 | that are happening in the labs. We cut through the hype to get you up to speed on the rules, |
| 0:30.3 | standards, and ideas shaping the future of this pivotal technology. If you enjoy this episode, |
| 0:35.2 | you can find and subscribe to scaling laws wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on X in Blue Sky. |
| 0:40.8 | Thanks for listening. |
| 0:45.9 | When the AI overlords take over, what are you most excited about? |
| 0:53.8 | It's not crazy. It's just smart. |
| 0:56.5 | And just this year in the first six months, there have been something like a thousand laws. |
| 1:00.8 | Who's actually building the scaffolding around how it's going to work, how everyday folks are going to use it? |
| 1:06.1 | AI only works if society lets it work. |
| 1:08.8 | There are so many questions have to be figured out and... |
| 1:11.6 | Nobody came to my bonus class. |
| 1:13.6 | Let's enforce the rules of the road. |
| 1:18.6 | Welcome back to scaling laws, the podcast brought to you by Lawfare and the University of Texas School of Law that explores the intersection of AI, law, and policy. |
| 1:26.6 | I'm Kevin Frazier, the AI |
| 1:29.0 | Innovation and Law Fellow at Texas Law, and a senior editor at Lawfare, joined by my co-host, |
| 1:34.6 | Alan Rosenstein, Associate Professor at Minnesota Law, and Research Director at Lawfare. |
| 1:39.7 | If 2025 taught us anything about AI policy, it's that vibes matter. |
... |
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