Technology Policy

I have been working in technology and technology policy for over two decades. I strayed into this topic through an earlier interest in economic development, which I studied as an undergraduate (including some life-changing classes with Amartya Sen). My doctoral research (at Oxford, in Law) was focused on policies and regulations to bridge the digital divide in rural India. Through that work, I got involved in a range of issues related to telecoms policy, content, and Internet governance (especially related to ICANN).

The field has changed dramatically since the turn of the millennium. Back then, it felt pretty arcane, and tangential to the main currents of life. It was hard to get excited about DNS and TLD (top-level domains, for those who don’t remember) management. But now tech policy is so much broader, and encompasses virtually every aspect of our economic, social, political, and cultural lives. I really believe that so many of our seemingly most intractable problems—polarization, inequality, climate—run through tech policy. So my work these days encompasses a much more diverse set of areas.

So my work these days encompasses a much more diverse set of areas.

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Areas of Work

Artificial Intelligence (AI), I work on public AI, which means looking at how AI can be built in a way that serves the public interest (not publicly-owned AI). This covers a wide range of topics, including public compute and open models, edge AI, and the intersections with digital public infrastructure (DPI) in the Global South. I’m also working on evals and metrics for public AI: trying to understand how we would measure the social impact and embeddedness of AI systems.
Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), and its potential for inclusion and innovation, especially in the Global South. This strand of research takes place at Princeton, where I’m part of a DPI initiative at the Chadha Center for Global India. I also taught a course on DPI at Princeton. (Contact me if you’d like to see the syllabus). and its potential for both inclusion and innovation, especially across the Global South. This strand of research takes place at Princeton, where I’m part of a DPI initiative at the Chadha Center for Global India. I also taught a course on DPI at Princeton. Part of this work involves looking at how AI fits into the DPI stack (AI+DPI: A Primer”).
Technology in the Global South, and especially how AI is playing out in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. I’m particularly interested in edge AI, AI for low-resource languages, and “community data” and “participatory data” to build contextually relevant models.
Digital and AI Sovereignty in an increasingly tumultuous geopolitical climate. Some of my work at New America in particular looks at the potential—and challenges—of AI for middle powers. (See this policy brief on digital agency, which I suggest is a better rubric than digital sovereignty).
Missing Layers of the Internet: I’m working on a book about how to build a better Internet, arguing that the network has outgrown its minimalist architecture. It builds on my work in public AI and DPI to suggest the need for new “layers” that would be built as open, public goods—much like the Internet and the WWW were originally conceived.

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Writings and Talks

Op-ed on building and funding public AI, co-authored with Arvind Narayanan in the Indian Express
Documenting the social and economic impact of Digital Public Goods for DPI , co-authored with Gordon LaForge for the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA)
Could DPI make a better Internet? An article in Foreign Policy
“From Digital Sovereignty to Digital Agency,” New America policy brief.
New Yorker article on Internet governance and the search for a better Internet (including a section on DPI).
Article in Foreign Policy on the new American doctrine of “digital solidarity.”
Article in the Wall Street Journal Week in Review about the growing risk of digital nationalism (now known as digital sovereignty).
A blog post from New America on the contextual factors driving the rapid adoption of DPI.
A primer I wrote for UNDP on Internet governance.
An article in the Economist on bridging the digital divide.
"Looking Ahead: What if AI Works Out?” Keynote address at Rutgers University conference on AI and the classics. (Link coming soon)
“Beyond Digital Empires: AI Implementations for Middle Powers,” a panel at the AI Impact Summit, New Delhi.
“AI in the Global South: DPI as an AI Governance Approach,” Keynote address at the National Law School, Bangalore, official pre-Summit event.

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