Who Makes The Rules In The Digital Gilded Age? | Tom Wheeler

Hidden Forces

Demetri Kofinas

Government, Business

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Episode 341 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Tom Wheeler, the former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the author of the recently published book “Techlash: Who Makes the Rules in the Digital Gilded Age?”

Wheeler and Kofinas spend the first hour of their conversation discussing Tom’s time leading the FCC, what he learned during his time there about the policy-making process and the challenges of regulating Big Tech, how industrial era regulations and agencies are ill-suited for overseeing today’s 21st century digital economy, and what’s at stake if we don’t get it right.

In the second hour of their conversation, Tom and Demetri get into specific policy and regulatory proposals for dealing with both social media and artificial intelligence by challenging some of the false dichotomies and tribal biases that have dominated this conversation in recent years. They look at ways of incentivizing social media platforms to produce better quality information that reduces the incidence of costly externalities like rising rates of anxiety and depression among children, while cutting across political and ideological lines. Tom Wheeler also discusses President Joe Biden’s recently signed executive order on AI and the challenges of regulating this profoundly disruptive and potentially dangerous new technology.

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Episode Recorded on 11/27/2023

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's up everybody? My name is Demetri Gaffinus and you're listening to Hidden Forces, a
0:06.2	podcast that inspires investors, entrepreneurs and everyday citizens to challenge consensus narratives and to learn how to think
0:14.8	critically about the systems of power shaping our world.
0:19.0	My guest in this episode of Hidden Forces is Tom Wheeler, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission,
0:25.6	and the author of the recently published book, TechLash, who makes the rules in the digital
0:31.3	Guilded Age?
0:32.3	Tom and I spend the first hour of our conversation. rules in the digital gilded age.
0:33.0	Tom and I spend the first hour of our conversation discussing his time leading the FCC,
0:38.0	what he learned during his time there about the policy-making process and the challenges of regulating big tech, why industrial-era
0:45.1	regulations and agencies are ill-suited for overseeing today's 21st century digital economy,
0:51.2	and what's at stake if we don't get it right? In the second hour of our
0:55.4	conversation, Tom and I get into specific policy and regulatory proposals for
1:00.7	dealing with both social media and artificial intelligence by challenging
1:04.9	some of the false dichotomies and tribal biases that have dominated this
1:09.2	conversation in recent years. We look at ways of incentivizing social media platforms to produce better quality information
1:16.6	that cuts across political and ideological lines and that reduces the incidents of costly externalities like rising rates of anxiety and
1:25.0	depression among children. We also discuss President Joe Biden's recently
1:29.2	signed executive order on AI and the challenges of regulating this profoundly disruptive and potentially dangerous
1:36.3	new technology. You can access that part of the conversation on our premium feed,
1:41.0	which you can listen to on your mobile device using your favorite
1:44.3	podcast app just like you're listening to this episode right now by going to Hidden Forces
1:50.6	dot I.O slash subscribe, where you can also join in on the conversation by becoming
	...

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