As a suite of technologies under the label of artificial intelligence increasingly take center stage, policymakers recognize the need to develop deep technical expertise about the deployment of evolving technologies in distinct contexts. But specific technical knowledge in the hands of a few will remain insufficient. All policymakers need to develop intuitions and an arsenal of heuristics to make decisions about automated systems across policy domains, informing potential AI policymaking.

In this policy brief, we offer a series of analogies as a shorthand for policymakers who inevitably will need a range of short-term responses to AI policymaking and related automated systems. In doing so, we also emphasize that AI is more than just large language models; it includes smaller, simpler models that impact the public every day and systems that make use of AI as one of numerous components. These analogies are no substitute for an extensive understanding of specific tools and deployment contexts, but they offer an initial set of mental models to avoid over-heated first reactions based on hype or skepticism.

Analogies have developed a bad reputation in tech policy as it can be tricky to thread the needle of simplifying a complicated topic. They can make a policymaker or politician look woefully ill-informed, as was the case when Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) referred to the Internet as “a series of tubes” in 2006 and was widely ridiculed as being out-of-touch.1 This analogy, however, can be quite helpful. There are cables in tubes that form the physical backbone of the Internet. 2 Paying attention to the literal tubes matters enormously for infrastructure investment (to build more tubes) and for national security (to recognize who has jurisdiction over the tubes), but can be misleading when thinking in terms of content moderation (how does information actually flow?) or privacy (how is information appropriately safeguarded?).

Analogies remain central to AI policymaking. 3 The law relies on comparisons between websites and libraries or the public square, for example, while politicians may liken the internet to the highway system. 4 Over-indexing to one analogy is misleading, but so too is avoiding explicit frameworks.

Read the full article about AI policymaking by Sorelle Friedler and Marc Aidinoff at Equitable Growth.