Regulate Tech

In this first episode of 2026, Nicklas Berild Lundblad and Richard Allen explore how AI tools are transforming the craft of public policy. Their core argument: if you're regulating technology, you need to understand it firsthand—and the barriers to experimenting have never been lower.  The Essential Toolkit Get comfortable with the command line. Every operating system has a terminal (Command+Space...

In 2026 Regulate Tech returns. Here we go through a few new ideas, where we are in life and what comes next. We also discuss 2025 and 2026 - and share ideas on how the new year will unfold.  Enjoy!   Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

In this episode we discuss how we should think about, analyze and understand power in tech policy. We are bad at talking about power because it is such a loaded term - but all politics, and all technology, in some way relates to the exercise of power, so we need to have a working theory of power to make sense of it all!    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

In this episode we discuss the challenges of regulating for what is and what will be - and how to think about artificial intelligence: is it efficiency or innovation? And what should policy makers do?    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

In this episode we discuss how to approach public policy issues at different points in the Gartner hype cycle -- should you lean in to the peak of inflated expectations? Solidly make a home in the trough of disillusionment? Listen in!    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

In this episode we discuss the importance of cyber and information security, why it is hard to draft regulation to make a city safe, the NIS2 and the trade offs involved in security policy overall.    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

How should we think about internet services in a global first world? The answer to that question is shifting fast from launch once, access everywhere to the more complex launch, comply and restrict - and ultimately maybe this has to be solved in a trade framework -- so how will that work? Will we get international standards for platforms? AI?    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

In this episode we discuss the special challenges that policy professionals meet as new governments are coming in, how to work with them - and how to best prepare, and when to simply stand back. What do we do a year before an election? 3 months before? During the first 100 days?    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

It is the OG of tech policy issues -- encryption. And not it is back! How should we manage the requests to create backdoors, disable e2e encryption and where are we headed in this contentious debate?    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

What do you do when the clash between your organization's views and those of a government just is not avoidable anymore? How do you handle redlines? In this episode we discuss the tricky art of confrontation.    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

In this episode we discuss the year that was and the year that is coming - and make some predictions! Happy New Year!   Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

On thermonuclear lawsuits, fair and unfair attacks, the necessary grumbling phase, the value of real, deep and felt conflict and much more. How should you react when attacked as an organisation? What is the best policy response to criticism?    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

When should you pivot from lobbying against a bill to shaping it? When should you re-evaluate and ditch old strategies? How can you keep yourself honest in assessing how things are actually going and are we - in policy and politics - rewarding persistence at the price of increasing our sunk costs? We discuss Annie Duke's excellent book Quit: Knowing when to walk away from a policy perspective.   P...

In this episode we discuss what works and what does not work in trying to shape the outcome of the legislative process. We also launch the idea of venture policy portfolios to avoid being late to the game, and give a few pointers on what not to say.    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

So AI is on everyone's mind. But how should we think about capable and complex systems overall? What are the fundamentals? What are some general models and ideas about the challenges we will face when regulating AI? In this episode we discuss the broad strokes around AI and how they force us to rethink things like agency and actions.    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundböad

In this session we discuss encryption, and how it affects our ability as a society to fight crime. This is not a new discussion, and the questions have been up for discussion before. Is it different this time? We also discuss the long term future of encryption and how the debate might evolve.    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

In this episode we review some recent research and ask why and how we should regulate technology more broadly -- through focusing on the technology or on the human behaviour? What is best and how do we research human behaviour and use of technology better?    The papers we discussed:  https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2216614120 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.11225.pdf https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm...

How do we deal with new technology from a regulatory perspective? How fast does the legislation catch up with technology, and is it different for different areas of the law? How do things like crypto, AI and quantum provoke responses from government? In this episode we discuss models of regulation for emerging technology, and what we really are regulating - is it technology, companies or geopoliti...

In this first episode of the year we discuss the Online Safety Bill and the latest changes, new challenges and everything from criminal liability to age verification in practice. Tune in and send us your questions and ideas.    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

In this episode we review the year - looking at what kind of a year it was. Was it A Year of Catastrophes? A Year of Regulation? Or was it the Twitter year? We discuss the key events, things undervalued and missed -- and what 2023 has to offer! Tune in and offer us ideas for what we should talk about next year!   Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

Richard presents a model of content moderation that explores motives, functions and problems associated with the content moderation value chain. We discuss digital villages and cities, and the gentrification of Reddit.    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

In this episode we discuss the EU Digital Services Act that is published on the 27th in the Official Journal. We talk about its origins, motivation, signal value, concrete provisions and offer a few predictions for the coming years! Tune in!    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

In this episode we discuss the key drivers for regulation, in a nifty ABCDE-model. Tune in and listen to us discuss access, behaviour, content, data and... energy!    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad

In this episode we discuss the upcoming discussions about network fees and network investment. Should online service providers pay a fee to telecom companies, when their traffic is so voluminous? Should network investment be separated out into specific companies? And what will happen to network neutrality in all of this? Should we all just get Starlink?    Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Beri...

How does a policy team think about academic research? Is it helpful, if so - when and why? And what are the do's and dont's in collaboration and what are some of the key learnings from what we have seen from research so far in the tech policy space?   Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad