Daniel Castro

Education Secretary Linda McMahon proposed eliminating the Department of Education by cutting federal bureaucracy to empower state-led innovation, but true transformation in American education requires a national commitment to investing in AI-driven personalized learning.

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has aggressively downsized the federal workforce. To maintain essential services with fewer staff, the administration must embrace digital transformation, leveraging AI, automation, and self-service portals to improve efficiency and modernize government operations.

A well-calibrated approach that prevents Chinese companies like Shein and Temu from exploiting loopholes while incentivizing compliance and supporting vetted sellers on U.S. platforms would best serve U.S. economic and strategic interests.

Recent developments, including DeepSeek’s notable successes, have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the U.S. export control policy and show how U.S. firms may ultimately pay the price unless the Trump administration takes a new approach.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez excoriated social media companies for a litany of harms in his Davos keynote, and above all for “harming the liberal order and the democratic system.” But the most startling thing was his proposed solution: radical reforms that would fundamentally curtail digital freedoms online.

President Biden’s parting condemnation of what he called the “tech-industrial complex” underscored how deeply entrenched demonization of the tech industry has become among policymakers—a stance they must change to ensure America remains globally competitive.

In response to the Supreme Court decision today in TikTok, Inc. v. Garland to uphold the law that would ban TikTok, ITIF released the following statement from Vice President Daniel Castro.

Last October, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) proposed a sweeping set of remedies in response to an earlier court ruling that Google violated antitrust laws with its search business. While most attention has focused on the potential partial breakup of Google—the DOJ has proposed the divesture of the Chrome web browser and the Android mobile operating system—the proposed remedies would also have significant implications for U.S. competitiveness in AI.

From safer roads and efficient railways to streamlined air and sea travel, technology-driven modernization can transform the nation’s infrastructure—if the administration overcomes regulatory roadblocks and special interest opposition.

Mandatory labeling for AI-generated content, particularly through watermarking, is neither a reasonable nor effective solution to the issues policymakers seek to address. Rather than singling out AI-generated content, policymakers should prioritize building trust within the digital ecosystem as a whole.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan is once again stoking unsubstantiated fears about algorithmic pricing—the practice of using algorithms to offer customers different prices based on dynamic market conditions—but this time, her examples are even more outlandish.

While the Biden administration champions the need for private sector innovation to drive U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence, its Justice Department wants to put one of America’s top innovators—Google—on the chopping block.

Watch now for a panel discussion on the proposed AI export control framework’s implications for U.S. competitiveness, the global AI ecosystem, and national security. Panelists will discuss the risks of the proposed approach, explore alternative policy strategies, and discuss the path forward to balance economic, security, and foreign policy objectives.

Daniel Castro speaks at a webinar on the national and international policies shaping data management and use hosted by EMPOWER, a research programme sponsored by Science Foundation Ireland.

Daniel Castro speaks about the impact of emerging technologies on national security and the economy at the Margalla Dialogue in Islamabad, hosted by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI).

Daniel Castro presents on the impact of AI on cybersecurity at an event hosted by Dar America in Casablanca.

Daniel Castro speaks about policies around the use of AI in the U.S. education system at a conference hosted by the Digital Development Agency (ADD) in Morocco.

Daniel Castro speaks about how to address cybersecurity risks from AI at a talk hosted by the School of Information Sciences (ESI) in Rabat, Morocco.

Daniel Castro presents about the safe and responsible use of AI in education at the conference "Bridging the Skills Gap: AI Solutions for Zimbabwe's Education to Workforce Pipeline."

Daniel Castro moderates a panel about IT modernization in the defense and intelligence communities at the 8th Annual Intel IT Modernization Summit hosted by the Defense Strategies Institute.

Daniel Castro speaks about AI's impact on electricity consumption at the Capital Goods Virtual Conference 2024.

Watch now for the fourth annual AR/VR Policy Conference presented by Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and the XR Association.

Daniel Castro speaks about how policymakers can maximize the opportunities associated with AI at the 9th Congresso Empresarial Colombiano in Medellin, Colombia.

Daniel Castro speaks about AI governance and ethics at the IndabaX 2024 Zimbabwe AI Symposium hosted by the Harare Institute of Technology and the U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe.