On August 10, MIT Technology Review is launching Roundtables, a participatory subscriber-only online event series, to maintain you informed about emerging tech.

Subscribers will get exclusive access to 30-minute monthly conversations with our writers and editors about topics they’re pondering deeply about—including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, climate change, tech policy, and more. (In the event you’re not yet a subscriber, change into one today and save as much as 17%.)

The primary Roundtables event, The AI economy, will feature David Rotman, MIT Technology Review editor at large, in conversation with editor in chief Mat Honan. They may discuss David’s recent coverage on the economic implications of enormous language models like ChatGPT and US efforts to reshore the chip industry and, more broadly, to create innovation hubs. 

There may be little doubt that generative AI will affect the economy—but how, exactly, stays an open query. Despite fears that these AI tools will upend jobs and exacerbate wealth inequality, early evidence suggests the technology could help level the playing field—but provided that we deploy it in the appropriate ways. Likewise, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips Act each have huge implications for the economy, and for efforts to revive America’s high-tech manufacturing base. Rotman and Honan will take a look at who stands to profit from these transformative economic events, and what the risks are. 

Then, on September 12, our next edition of Roundtables will tackle one other essential query: How should we regulate AI? Charlotte Jee, news editor, and Melissa Heikkilä, senior reporter for AI, will discuss the state of AI regulation today and what to observe for within the months ahead.

Europe’s AI Act focuses on creating guardrails for “high-risk” AI utilized in health care and education systems. Within the US, a patchwork of federal regulations and state laws govern certain points of automated systems, while work on a federal framework stays within the early stages. Meanwhile, the OECD has set forth a set of nonbinding principles for AI development, and recent industry standards are also taking shape. Heikkilä and Jee will walk subscribers through these and other approaches, mapping out the landscape of proposed policies that aim to redirect AI toward serving societal goals or address potential biases that put people in danger. 

In the event you’re a subscriber, check your email for details on the best way to register for each events. (Or subscribe now to avoid wasting as much as 17%.) We hope you may join us as we explore what’s happening now and what’s coming next in emerging technologies.