Stranded Technologies Podcast · Infinita City

Ep. 98: A Conversation with Adam Thierer: The War on Computation - Why AI Must Stay Permissionless

·56 min·3 clips

Adam Thierer says proposals to pause AI globally were part of a “war on computation.”

1. Stranded Technologies Podcast episode 98 centers on Adam Thierer’s case for keeping AI and computation permissionless. 2. Adam Thierer appears as a policy analyst based in DC and the author of Permissionless Innovation and Evasive Entrepreneurship, and Niklas hosts the conversation. 3. The episode asks whether AI policy will follow the Internet’s “permissionless innovation” path or a precautionary regulatory path. 4. Thierer says two years earlier policymakers were floating proposals to pause AI globally, create AI-specific regulatory bodies, and add licensing and liability schemes. 5. He describes that earlier moment as a “war on computation” marked by “techno panic” and “movies and science fiction plots.” 6. Thierer says the atmosphere has changed because policymakers recognized the geopolitical race with China and the costs of overregulating machine learning. 7. He cites a TIME magazine quote about “bombing the data centers” as an example of how extreme the debate had become. 8. Thierer argues the Internet age began with a clean break from a century of command-and-control media and telecom regulation. 9. He says the United States and some other countries created a “legal firewall” that kept the digital world separate from older licensing and censorship models. 10. He credits that framework with the rise of “permissionless innovation” and the largest expansion of information platforms in human history. 11. Thierer says freedom solved the old problem of scarcity so well that the new complaint became information overload. 12. He argues Europe chose the precautionary principle instead of freedom, especially on data flows, and paid a steep economic price. 13. He says 18 of the 25 largest digital technology companies are US headquartered and only two are European. 14. He adds that seven of the eight trillion-dollar companies in the world are American and none are European. 15. Thierer says the United States is still producing state-level AI bills that rely on audits, impact assessments, and definitions of algorithmic bias. 16. He says more than 1,000 AI bills appeared in the first five months of 2025 and that California, New York, Illinois, and Colorado account for 250 of them. 17. The conversation also revisits the historical point that Democrats helped lead earlier deregulation in airlines, energy, and Internet policy under Carter and Clinton-Gore. 18. Thierer and the host discuss how Alfred Kahn, the Civitas Institute, Montana’s Right to Compute Act, and state-federal tensions shape the current policy fight. 19. Listeners interested in AI policy, federalism, and pro-growth regulation would get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a light, non-technical conversation would probably skip it. 21. This episode is built around long policy arguments, specific statutes, and comparative examples rather than personal storytelling. 22. Niklas pushes Thierer on coalition-building, state experimentation, and the risk that blue states will export regulatory models to Washington. 23. Thierer responds that federal preemption can also go badly, citing the FDA and the FAA as warnings. 24. He says federalism should preserve space for states like Montana, Utah, and Arizona while limiting the reach of national regulation. 25. The tone is analytical and debate-heavy, with both speakers moving through history, political coalitions, and regulatory mechanics. 26. The format is a direct interview that stays focused on AI governance, abundance politics, and the question of who controls technological change. 27. People who care about AI bills, state power, and technology policy will likely find the argument useful. 28. People looking for entertainment, narrative suspense, or a quick overview should probably skip it.

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