Advanced Technology and Public Policy

The incredible pace of technological change during the past 25 years has presented enormous theoretical, practical and policy challenges for public policymakers, regulators and legal systems throughout the world. Technological disruption has forced these key stakeholders to grapple with rapidly changing conceptions of individual privacy, national security, intellectual property and copyright protection, cybersecurity, hacking and other technology-based criminal activity, and the nature and extent of government regulation.

This course will focus on cutting-edge issues in technology and public policy, regulation and the law. The course is for students with existing familiarity with basic technology-related issues. The coursework will build on that foundation and focus on the public policy, regulatory and legal aspects of 5G wireless technology (including smart cities and telemedicine), autonomous vehicles, drones, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, facial recognition, biometrics, Bitcoin, Blockchain and other cutting-edge, advanced technology platforms. We will examine the emerging public policy, regulatory and legal responses to these advanced technologies in the United States, the European Union and elsewhere.

The course will be divided into two parts: during the first half of the course we will discuss some of the key concepts involved in addressing advanced technology, such as regulation, privacy and intellectual property. During the second half of the course we will delve into several of the specific technologies themselves, to gain a deeper understand of the public policy, regulatory and legal issues they present.