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lincoln network

The umbrella organization over Studio, Deployed and Policy seeking to bridge the gap between innovators and policymakers for a freer and more abundant future.

lincoln studio

A product studio that partners with donors to create new technology products to solve policy and social problems. The liberty skunkworks.

lincoln policy

A boutique think tank that works with policymakers and tech innovators to promote market-oriented ideas to strengthen American innovation.

lincoln Events

Lincoln got its start through events, and events remain a vital link in our strategy to engage technologists, explore innovation-fueled and market-based alternatives, and begin developing 21st-century solutions to some of the nation’s most urgent problems

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November 10, 2022 | Deepesh Chaudhari

The Unmasking of Manipulative AI 

The potential for automated influence operations, in which AI systems are designed to manipulate humans, is real and deserves our attention. As AI systems proliferate in creating media and interactive experiences, the opportunities for manipulative persuasion and harmful social consequences will increase. In particular, machine learning (ML) progress in text and video generation could dramatically
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October 21, 2022 | Lars Schönander

New Data Sheds Light on Foreign Energy Investment Data

In a time of pronounced volatility in energy markets as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war and recent production cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+), it’s important that we have reliable data on the operations of energy companies. Thanks to a successful Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, we’re one step
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October 11, 2022 | Deepesh Chaudhari

Congress Needs Foresight on Future AI Risks

AI has the potential to significantly improve our lives in many ways, but it also poses significant risks. On the one hand, technological advances in how computer systems can execute tasks that traditionally require human intelligence have an unprecedented potential to benefit humanity in countless ways. AI has already led to medical, transportation, and education
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October 10, 2022 | Ryan Khurana

The Moral Panic Over Open-Source Generative AI

On September 22, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) called on the National Security Advisor (NSA) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to restrict access to open-source generative AI models in response to the release of Stable Diffusion by Stability AI. Stable Diffusion is an open-source text-to-image AI that allows for the creation of
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October 5, 2022 | Zach Graves

Quarterly Activities Update

Dear friend of Lincoln: I’d like to share with you some of our team’s recent activities, including new research from Lincoln Policy, project updates from Lincoln Studio, and other developments across Lincoln Network. As we prepare for next week’s Reboot conference, take a look at what the Lincoln team has been working on over the
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September 30, 2022 | Zach Graves

Announcing the Third Policy Hackers Cohort

We’re excited to announce Lincoln Network’s third cohort of Policy Hackers: ten tech professionals from around the country who are passionate about bridging the gap between innovators and policymakers. Fellows will remain in their current roles while engaging with policy experts, lobbyists, academics, and government officials throughout the year-long program. The programming is aimed at
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September 8, 2022 | Jonathon Hauenschild

FTC’s Unwarranted Fight with Meta Will Harm Consumers

With the Federal Trade Commission’s recent effort to block the merger between Meta and fitness app developer Within, the Democratic leadership of the FTC is showing its preference for playing politics rather than protecting consumers. The Commission argues that the merger would give Meta a dominant position in the market for “dedicated VR fitness apps.”
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August 22, 2022 | Luke Hogg

Antitrust Reform After AICOA

Despite months of pressure on leadership to bring antitrust legislation to the floor, the Senate left town for the August recess without voting on the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA). While Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has stated that AICOA could still receive a vote this fall, Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s signature effort to rein
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August 9, 2022 | Zach Graves

Quarterly Activities Update

Dear friend of Lincoln: I’d like to share with you some of our team’s recent activities, including new research from Lincoln Policy, project updates from Lincoln Studio, and other developments across Lincoln Network. In April, we welcomed two new members to our board of directors: Michael Solana, Vice President at Founders Fund, and Laurent Crenshaw, Global Head of Policy
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August 1, 2022 | Luke Hogg

Innovation Could Advance Free Expression Online

With the battle over the ownership of Twitter making its way into the courtroom, conservatives’ hopes that tech magnate Elon Musk would swoop in and solve the quagmire of free speech online have been put in jeopardy. As members of Congress debate legislation that fails to address conservatives’ core concerns, it is time for lawmakers
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July 18, 2022 | Zach Graves

Lincoln Welcomes New Fellow

Lincoln Network is thrilled to announce the appointment of Jessica Seale as a nonresident fellow. In this position, she will contribute to Lincoln’s work on congressional modernization. Jessica’s experience in the federal government makes her a perfect addition to Lincoln’s policy team. She previously led technology design and implementation for the Paycheck Protection Program at
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June 27, 2022 | Deepesh Chaudhari

NIST’s Artificial Intelligence Framework Should Address Low-Probability, High-Impact Risks

Note: The author previously submitted an anonymous comment to NIST. This blog post summarizes material from that comment. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s recent initial draft of its AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) provides an important reminder for the future of AI: advances in artificial intelligence have the potential to provide
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June 22, 2022 | Grace Meyer

We’re Hiring: Operations Manager

To apply, answer a few questions and submit your resume and cover letter here: https://form.typeform.com/to/P01ufl4V The Operations Manager will work closely with Lincoln Network’s Head of Development and COO and will be responsible for assisting with donor relations, event planning/promotions, and operations support; as well as other administrative tasks as needed. This is a full-time
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June 17, 2022 | Luke Hogg

Don’t Rush a Bad Bill

Democrats’ poorly-drafted antitrust bill will do little for Republicans, and its consumer backlash will undermine future legislative efforts Republicans and Democrats alike have grown increasingly mistrustful of large online platforms in recent years. But the basis for this mistrust comes from two conflicting lines of thinking. Whereas Democrats are primarily concerned with market power and
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June 15, 2022 | Dan Lips

Americans Underestimate What Public Schools Spend Per Student

The Department of Education recently reported that public schools spent on average more than $15,000 per student as of 2019. But Americans continue to estimate that public schools spend much less.  A May survey commissioned by EdChoice found that Americans think public schools are spending roughly $5,000 per child. Colyn Ritter has the details:  Parents
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May 23, 2022 | Zach Graves

Lincoln Welcomes New Senior Fellows

Lincoln Network is thrilled to announce the appointment of two nonresident senior fellows: Jon Askonas and Richard Reisman. Each brings a wealth of policy expertise, augmenting Lincoln’s growing roster of experts. RICHARD REISMAN Richard Reisman is a nonresident senior fellow at Lincoln Network. Richard is an independent media-tech innovator and frequent contributor to Tech Policy Press, who blogs on
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May 9, 2022 | Luke Hogg

New Talks in the Senate Present a Pathway for High-Skilled Immigration Reform

For decades, immigration reform has been a white whale for Congress. Despite bipartisan legislative efforts, executive branch buy-in, and broad agreement that the current system is broken, immigration reform legislation has proven elusive. Now that a bipartisan group of Senators has once again begun legislative discussions on the topic, there may soon be opportunities to
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May 5, 2022 | Brandon Detweiler

Lincoln Studio Launches BIPBounty.org

Lincoln Studio is proud to announce the launch of BIPBounty.org, a new project to support the open source development of Bitcoin. This new project incentivizes the research development and vetting of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) by creating a system for crowdsourcing tax-deductible bug bounties and distributing them to bounty winners. Lincoln Network has partnered with
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April 27, 2022 | Luke Hogg

Congress Should Question DHS on High-Skilled Immigration

As if like clockwork, the beginning of campaign season means that immigration is once again taking center stage in Washington. Amidst record breaking migration at the southern border and President Biden’s decision to end the Title 42 public health order, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, have been thrust back
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April 21, 2022 | Evan Swarztrauber

How (Not) to Waste A Crisis

In 2008, with the economy in free-fall, then-chief of staff to president-elect Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, told the Wall Street Journal, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”  The line has become
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April 11, 2022 | Zach Graves

Lincoln welcomes Mike Solana and Laurent Crenshaw to board

Lincoln Network is excited to announce two new members of its board of directors starting in May: Mike Solana, vice president at Founders Fund; and Laurent Crenshaw, global head of policy at Patreon. Mike Solana Mike is a vice president at Founders Fund focused on community and brand. He runs creative programming including Symposium (F50),
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April 11, 2022 | Zach Graves

Lincoln welcomes new innovation policy experts

Lincoln Network is thrilled to announce the appointment of two nonresident senior fellows: Roslyn Layton and Jimmy Soni. Each brings a wealth of expertise in tech and innovation and policy, augmenting Lincoln’s growing roster of experts. Roslyn Layton Roslyn Layton, PhD is an international technology expert who explains the economics, security, and geopolitics of broadband
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April 5, 2022 | Dan Lips

Lincoln Policy Quarterly Activities Update

Dear friend of Lincoln: I’d like to share with you some of our team’s recent work on a range of issues, from national security, to tech regulation, to modernizing governance. I also want to introduce you to our growing team.   Lincoln’s Voice  Our Executive Director, Zach Graves, announced that Lincoln is adopting an “open voice
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March 23, 2022 | Zach Graves

Lincoln’s voice

Dear friend of Lincoln: I wanted to share a brief note to update you about how our approach to policy is evolving. When I started Lincoln’s policy team in 2018, it was a team of one. Even when we expanded a little, it didn’t make sense at the time to differentiate our individual views from
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March 22, 2022 | Luke Hogg

Progressives Introduce New Bill to Ban Large Mergers and Acquisitions

With little chance of passage, are progressives attacking or feinting moderates? Over the past few years, lawmakers have considered tightening rules around mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as a way to rein in Big Tech’s bigness. Last week, in a rather unexpected move, progressives in Congress unveiled their counter to previous antitrust legislation. The bicameral Prohibiting
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March 3, 2022 | Luke Hogg

Antonio García Martínez Sits Down with American Moment

Earlier this week, Antonio García Martínez sat down with Saurabh Sharma and Nick Solheim of American Moment to discuss the early days of Facebook, the invention of ad-targeting, and what’s in store for the future internet, cryptocurrencies, and nation-states. Learn more about Antonio and his work here, and check out American Moment on their website
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February 22, 2022 | Luke Hogg

The Devil is in the Details for Data Privacy

In a rather unusual move, the Committee on House Administration (CHA) — whose primary jurisdiction is oversight and “the day-to-day operations of the House of Representatives” — recently held a hearing to discuss data privacy. While the first tranche of witness testimony was centered around the Government Publishing Office’s treatment of personally identifiable information, the
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February 11, 2022 | Geoff Cain

COMPETES Act: Our industrial policy is spread too thin

At one time, the chipset cemented America’s position as a preeminent technological power. From the 1950s to 1970s, the US government and semiconductor companies like Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel worked together to turn America into the world’s biggest manufacturer of semiconductors. Semiconductors were the technological foundation of the Apollo missions, the first heat-seeking missiles and
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February 2, 2022 | Dan Lips

Policy Update for October-December 2021

Re: Lincoln Policy Team Activities for Q4 2021 Dear friend of Lincoln: As 2021 comes to a close, I’d like to share with you some of our policy team’s recent work, covering a range of issues from tech regulation, improving government accountability, and modernizing governance. Lincoln Network co-founder and chairman Garrett Johnson announced our new
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January 31, 2022 | Luke Hogg

T&I Hearing on 5G Provides an Opportunity for Answers

Following months of disagreement between federal regulators on 5G rollout in the C-Band, Congress has finally decided to step in. On February 3rd, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will hold a hearing to examine 5G deployment and aviation safety.  Last November, I argued that this dispute was a prime area for Congress to
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January 21, 2022 | Dan Lips

Strengthening Bipartisan Oversight by Expanding the “Rule of Seven” Statute

Empowering members to engage in bipartisan fact-finding has the potential to reinvigorate Congress’s oversight authority under the Constitution  Summary   Since 2019, the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress has developed a successful track record of passing bipartisan recommendations that are resulting in real changes to improve the way that Congress works. An October
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January 20, 2022 | Luke Hogg

It’s Time for Congress to Ask Some Questions About the 5G Dispute

The long awaited 5G rollout was once again delayed Wednesday due to ongoing disagreement between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over potential spectrum interference. Two weeks ago, it appeared that the disagreement had been resolved. But a last minute push by the airline industry to block the plan forced
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January 12, 2022 | Zach Graves

Announcing the Inaugural FACET Cohort

We are excited to announce two new members of the Lincoln Network team through our Fellowship on Advancing Critical Emerging Technologies (FACET). The two full-time Senior Fellows in the FACET program will be based in Washington, DC, and work closely with our team to translate academic ideas into actionable policies that advance American innovation. The
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January 5, 2022 | Luke Hogg

Sen. Toomey’s Principles for Stablecoin Regulation Strike the Right Balance

The Senate Banking Committee met late last year to discuss stablecoins. Among others, Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) voiced strong criticisms of stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi). Few likely expected the hearing to yield concrete policy proposals. That was until Ranking Member Pat Toomey’s (R-Pa.) opening remarks.  A noted advocate for
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January 4, 2022 | Lars Schönander

Video From All Senate Committee Proceedings in One Place

The United States Senate does not maintain a centralized repository for information about its committee proceedings that includes links to the videos. Our new website, https://www.senatecommitteehearings.com/, is our effort to address this issue and surface video from committee proceedings. Background The Senate publishes basic information about all upcoming meetings on this webpage. It is only
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December 8, 2021 | Dan Lips

House Modernization Committee Passes Recommendations to Strengthen and Leverage GAO’s Nonpartisan Oversight

The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress is building a track record of bipartisan success with nearly two-thirds of its recommendations from the 116th Congress being enacted to date. On Wednesday, the Select Committee passed its latest series of recommendations–including several proposals that would reform the way that Congress works with the Government
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November 23, 2021 | Brandon Detweiler

America is Losing its Lead as the Innovation Capital of the World

Due to lack of clarity on regulations from the SEC, and not being publicly open and supportive of the innovation happening in the crypto space (especially DeFi) the US is already missing the opportunity to advance what America has always been…the country where entrepreneurship, innovation, and advancement overflow and the GO-TO place for the greatest inventors, technologists, and innovators from around the world, bringing ever growing prosperity to all. It’s time to stop trying to apply laws that are almost 100 years old and embrace the future.
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