September 26, 2025<\/p>\n
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Artificial intelligence has vaulted to the top of the technology policy agenda and rightly so. Questions about algorithmic accountability, intellectual property, online misinformation, and data security require immediate and thoughtful attention.\u00a0 Yet we cannot lose sight of a threshold and fundamental challenge: millions of people in the United States, and billions of people around the world, still lack access to high-speed, reliable, and affordable internet service.<\/span><\/p>\n For those on the wrong side of the digital divide, debates about AI, online safety, or data security aren\u2019t even on the table.\u00a0 Without connectivity, people are excluded from education, healthcare, work, and civic life\u2014let alone the chance to have a voice in how the next generation of technology should be governed.<\/span><\/p>\n Closing this gap is not a secondary issue to effective technology policy; it is a prerequisite.\u00a0 Ensuring universal connectivity must be part of the <\/span>same <\/span><\/i>conversation as harnessing the benefits and containing the risks of AI and other emerging technologies.\u00a0 Otherwise, we risk deepening inequality by crafting the legal frameworks of the future while leaving millions without the ability to participate in that future at all.<\/span><\/p>\n Having worked at the FCC, NTIA, and now at Georgetown Law\u2019s Institute for Technology Law & Policy, I have seen how essential it is to hold both conversations at once.\u00a0 Yes, we must create thoughtful legal and policy frameworks for AI and other emerging technologies, and we must train future lawyers and lawmakers to center social good in this work.\u00a0 But those efforts must not eclipse the unfinished work of closing the connectivity gap\u2013and teaching students about the importance of universal and sustainable internet access.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Digital policy must integrate two core aspects:<\/span><\/p>\n This dual perspective is vital.\u00a0 Without AI and online governance, access can bring harms as well as benefits; without access, online governance is hollow.\u00a0 The policy community cannot afford to treat broadband access as yesterday\u2019s problem while turning its full attention to AI and emerging tech.\u00a0 Our national discussion must hold both in view. Online access and online governance are part of the same agenda.\u00a0 Only by advancing both together can we ensure that the benefits of technological innovation extend to everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n In my work as a fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy, I remain committed to pushing for integrated policy work\u2014with scholars, technologists, civil society, industry and government\u2014to ensure that we do not skip over the critical step of connection.\u00a0 Because until we get that right, the promise of emerging technology will remain out of reach for too many.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n\n