Class Meetings: Thursdays, 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m., room 32-124

Course Description

What does the history of Internet policy have to teach us about how to address pressing AI policy questions? In this class, we will explore the interaction between law, policy, and technology through the lens of the last thirty years (1996 – 2026) of policy-making that has shaped the Internet and World Wide Web we know today. We will pay special attention to freedom of expression and privacy issues as they have developed in the Internet era with the goal of understanding how they affect democratic values. Our general goal is for participants to develop the technical, legal, and rhetorical skills to analyze and participate in the evolution of the global public policy environments that govern human behavior on the Internet. 

 

This year, 6.4590 will pay special attention to public policy questions posed by the development of new AI systems, particularly Large Language Models. 

 

Topics include: history of Internet policy, the relationship between technical architecture and law, privacy, cybersecurity, freedom of expression, intellectual property, electronic surveillance, trade policy, and international affairs.

Examples will be drawn primarily from U.S. law but take an explicitly global perspective on policy, politics, and online activism. Students will interact with leading public-policy experts in classroom settings and through remote participation. There is an extensive final project that will be done under the guidance of mentors who are national leaders in Internet information policy issues.

Course Credit

6.4590 counts as a Course 6 Independent Inquiry (II) subject and also as a communications intensive (CI-M) subject. 6.4590 fulfills the Course 6.4 Human-centric subject requirement

MIT Course 6 students may count 6.4590 as one of the general engineering concentration subjects required for the S.B. or M.Eng. programs, or use this subject for HASS elective credit.  Graduate credit can be granted via STS487 (not Course 6), although this will require making special arrangements with Prof. Fischer for extra work.

6.4590 can be a pathway to performing research with the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative.