Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

AI Is Here. Our Laws Are Stuck in the Past.

Closeup of Software engineering team engaged in problem-solving and code analysis

Closeup of Software engineering team engaged in problem-solving and code analysis.

Getty Images, MTStock Studio

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises a future once confined to science fiction: personalized medicine accounting for your specific condition, accelerated scientific discovery addressing the most difficult challenges, and reimagined public education designed around AI tutors suited to each student's learning style. We see glimpses of this potential on a daily basis. Yet, as AI capabilities surge forward at exponential speed, the laws and regulations meant to guide them remain anchored in the twentieth century (if not the nineteenth or eighteenth!). This isn't just inefficient; it's dangerously reckless.

For too long, our approach to governing new technologies, including AI, has been one of cautious incrementalism—trying to fit revolutionary tools into outdated frameworks. We debate how century-old privacy torts apply to vast AI training datasets, how liability rules designed for factory machines might cover autonomous systems, or how copyright law conceived for human authors handles AI-generated creations. We tinker around the edges, applying digital patches to analog laws.


This constant patching creates what we might call "legal tech debt." Imagine trying to run sophisticated AI software on a computer from the 1980s—it might technically boot up, but it will be slow, prone to crashing, and incapable of performing its intended function. Similarly, forcing AI into legal structures designed for a different technological era means we stifle its potential benefits while failing to adequately manage its risks. Outdated privacy rules hinder the development of AI for public good projects; ambiguous liability standards chill innovation in critical sectors; fragmented regulations create uncertainty and inefficiency.

Allowing this legal tech debt to accumulate isn't just about missed opportunities; It breeds public distrust when laws seem irrelevant to lived reality. It invites policy chaos, as seen with the frantic, often ineffective, attempts to regulate social media after years of neglect. It risks a future where transformative technology evolves haphazardly, governed by stopgap measures and reactive panic rather than thoughtful design. With AI, the stakes are simply too high for such recklessness.

We need a fundamentally different approach. Instead of incremental tinkering, we need bold, systemic change. We need to be willing to leapfrog—to bypass outdated frameworks and design legal and regulatory systems specifically for the age of AI.

What does this leapfrog approach look like? It requires three key shifts in thinking:

First, we must look ahead. Policymakers and experts need to engage seriously with plausible future scenarios for AI development, learning from the forecasting methods used by technologists. This isn’t about predicting the future with certainty but about understanding the range of possibilities—from accelerating breakthroughs to unexpected plateaus—and anticipating the legal pressures and opportunities each might create. We need to proactively identify which parts of our legal infrastructure are most likely to buckle under the strain of advanced AI.

Second, we must embrace fundamental redesign. Armed with foresight, we must be willing to propose and implement wholesale reforms, not just minor rule changes. If AI requires vast datasets for public benefit, perhaps we need entirely new data governance structures—like secure, publicly accountable data trusts or commons—rather than just carving out exceptions to FERPA or HIPAA. If AI can personalize education, perhaps we need to rethink rigid grade-based structures and accreditation standards, not just approve AI tutors within the old system. This requires political courage and a willingness to question long-held assumptions about how legal systems should operate.

Third, we must build in adaptability. Given the inherent uncertainty of AI’s trajectory, any new legal framework must be dynamic, not static. We need laws designed to evolve. This means incorporating mechanisms like mandatory periodic reviews tied to real-world outcomes, sunset clauses that force reconsideration of rules, specialized bodies empowered to update technical standards quickly, and even using AI itself to help monitor the effectiveness and impacts of regulations in real-time. We need systems that learn and adapt, preventing the accumulation of new tech debt.

Making this shift won't be easy. It demands a new level of ambition from our policymakers, a greater willingness among legal experts to think beyond established doctrines, and broader public engagement on the fundamental choices AI presents. But the alternative—continuing to muddle through with incremental fixes—is far riskier. It’s a path toward unrealized potential, unmanaged risks, and a future where technology outpaces our ability to govern it wisely.

AI offers incredible possibilities but realizing them requires more than just brilliant code. It requires an equally ambitious upgrade to our legal and regulatory operating system. It’s time to stop patching the past and start designing the future. It’s time to leapfrog.

Kevin Frazier is an AI Innovation and Law Fellow at Texas Law and Author of the Appleseed AI substack.

Read More

When Good Intentions Kill Cures: A Warning on AI Regulation

Kevin Frazier warns that one-size-fits-all AI laws risk stifling innovation. Learn the 7 “sins” policymakers must avoid to protect progress.

Getty Images, Aitor Diago

When Good Intentions Kill Cures: A Warning on AI Regulation

Imagine it is 2028. A start-up in St. Louis trains an AI model that can spot pancreatic cancer six months earlier than the best radiologists, buying patients precious time that medicine has never been able to give them. But the model never leaves the lab. Why? Because a well-intentioned, technology-neutral state statute drafted in 2025 forces every “automated decision system” to undergo a one-size-fits-all bias audit, to be repeated annually, and to be performed only by outside experts who—three years in—still do not exist in sufficient numbers. While regulators scramble, the company’s venture funding dries up, the founders decamp to Singapore, and thousands of Americans are deprived of an innovation that would have saved their lives.

That grim vignette is fictional—so far. But it is the predictable destination of the seven “deadly sins” that already haunt our AI policy debates. Reactive politicians are at risk of passing laws that fly in the face of what qualifies as good policy for emerging technologies.

Keep ReadingShow less
Why Journalists Must Stand Firm in the Face of Threats to Democracy
a cup of coffee and a pair of glasses on a newspaper
Photo by Ashni on Unsplash

Why Journalists Must Stand Firm in the Face of Threats to Democracy

The United States is living through a moment of profound democratic vulnerability. I believe the Trump administration has worked in ways that weaken trust in our institutions, including one of democracy’s most essential pillars: a free and independent press. In my view, these are not abstract risks but deliberate attempts to discredit truth-telling. That is why, now more than ever, I think journalists must recommit themselves to their core duty of telling the truth, holding power to account, and giving voice to the people.

As journalists, I believe we do not exist to serve those in office. Our loyalty should be to the public, to the people who trust us with their stories, not to officials who often seek to mold the press to favor their agenda. To me, abandoning that principle would be to betray not just our profession but democracy itself.

Keep ReadingShow less
Fighting the Liar’s Dividend: A Toolkit for Truth in the Digital Age

In 2023, the RAND Corporation released a study on a phenomenon known as "Truth Decay," where facts become blurred with opinion and spin. But now, people are beginning to doubt everything, including authentic material.

Getty Images, VioletaStoimenova

Fighting the Liar’s Dividend: A Toolkit for Truth in the Digital Age

The Stakes: When Nothing Can Be Trusted

Two weeks before the 2024 election, a fake robocall mimicking President Biden's voice urged voters to skip the New Hampshire primary. According to AP News, it was an instance of AI-enabled election interference. Within hours, thousands had shared it. Each fake like this erodes confidence in the very possibility of knowing what is real.

The RAND Corporation refers to this phenomenon as "Truth Decay," where facts become blurred with opinion and spin. Its 2023 research warns that Truth Decay threatens U.S. national security by weakening military readiness and eroding credibility with allies. But the deeper crisis isn't that people believe every fake—it's that they doubt everything, including authentic material.

Keep ReadingShow less
From TikTok to Telehealth: 3 Ways Medicine Must Evolve to Reach Gen Z
person wearing lavatory gown with green stethoscope on neck using phone while standing

From TikTok to Telehealth: 3 Ways Medicine Must Evolve to Reach Gen Z

Ask people how much they expect to change over the next 10 years, and most will say “not much.” Ask them how much they’ve changed in the past decade, and the answer flips. Regardless of age, the past always feels more transformative than the future.

This blind spot has a name: the end-of-history illusion. The result is a persistent illusion that life, and the values and behaviors that shape it, will remain unchanged.

Keep ReadingShow less