What's the Story? NTIA's Alan Davidson calls for 'army of auditors' to regulate AI

In a keynote at the 20th State of the Net conference, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said the US government needs to utilize an 'army of auditors' to better regulate and manage AI.

Kelsey Ziser, Phil Harvey

February 13, 2024

At a Glance

  • NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson says there's a need for more AI regulation and management (02:55)
  • Lessening the digital divide: how to provide affordable and reliable Internet access for all (06:51)
  • The dichotomy of restricting Huawei and ZTE equipment in US networks while TikTok is a sponsor of the conference (11:49) 

Light Reading's Phil Harvey joins the podcast from on-site at the 20th annual State of the Net in Washington, DC, where he is covering the event that features speakers from the White House, FCC, NTIA and more. 

Unsurprisingly, AI has been a central topic at the conference. In a keynote, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said the US government needs to utilize an "army of auditors" to better regulate and manage AI.

Other topics are the need for online privacy and how to provide more affordable and reliable Internet access to underserved areas.

For a lightly edited transcript, please click the caption button in the video toolbar. 

Here are a few topics we cover:

  • There's not enough legislation protecting online privacy (01:22)

  • NTIA's Davidson says there's a need for more AI regulation and management to ensure the safety of AI products and data (02:55)

  • The problem of content theft powering AI (05:26)

  • Lessening the digital divide: how to provide affordable and reliable Internet access for all (06:51)

  • University of Chicago Professor Nick Feamster's Internet Equity Initiative (10:39)

  • The dichotomy of the US government's policies about restricting Huawei and ZTE equipment while TikTok is a sponsor of the State of the Net conference (11:49) 

About the Authors

Kelsey Ziser

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Kelsey is a senior editor at Light Reading, co-host of the Light Reading podcast, and host of the "What's the story?" podcast.

Her interest in the telecom world started with a PR position at Connect2 Communications, which led to a communications role at the FREEDM Systems Center, a smart grid research lab at N.C. State University. There, she orchestrated their webinar program across college campuses and covered research projects such as the center's smart solid-state transformer.

Kelsey enjoys reading four (or 12) books at once, watching movies about space travel, crafting and (hoarding) houseplants.

Kelsey is based in Raleigh, N.C.

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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