In January 2025, Chinese startup DeepSeek released an AI model that appeared to match America’s best —built for a fraction of the cost using chips crippled by U.S. export controls. Whether DeepSeek truly matches OpenAI’s capabilities remains widely disputed, but the market’s verdict was immediate. The announcement wiped $600 billion from Nvidia’s market value in…
On March 25th, I attended the “Making AI Work for the People” panel hosted by Georgetown University’s Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Citizenship (AIDC) and the Georgetown Democracy Initiative. The recent discourse from many universities about technology and ethics and governance were front and center at the popular Tech & Society week. I walked into the auditorium with a simple question: how can we move from theoretical…
A century ago, the world was about to plunge into a global depression that would empower fascist leaders bent on expansionist war that would leave more than 70 million people killed in nearly every region of the world. That devastation is becoming a distant memory, in large part because of the work of national governments, non-governmental…
It’s no secret that Congress isn’t functioning as the founders envisioned, one where there is a constant building and reshaping of coalitions to create the nation’s laws. Instead of fostering deliberation, the modern House of Representatives has become a place where power is monopolized in the majority party leadership. Even when legislation attracts broad bipartisan…
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Leadership Summit on March 11, 2026 offered a useful opportunity to consider how questions of technology leadership increasingly cut across domestic and global policy. In this joint reflection, Nikki Hinshaw, Global Policy Programs Coordinator, and Sasha Nicholas, Domestic Policy Programs Coordinator, offer their respective perspectives on the summit and on the role the University of Pennsylvania is playing in…
Biography Dr. Alex Noyes is a fellow in the Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at the Brookings Institution. He has expertise and senior-level U.S. government policy experience across a range of international security issues, including U.S. defense policy, military assistance, irregular warfare, resilience, total defense, coups, and democratization. From 2021 to 2023 Noyes…
Penn Washington is proud to welcome Dr. Alex Noyes as a Visiting Scholar. He will be researching Irregular Warfare, Resilience, and developing policy recommendations to address the challenges of both. In addition to his work at Penn Washington, he is a fellow in the Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at the Brookings Institution.…
To mark International Women’s Day this Sunday, Penn Washington is proud to highlight the women who make up our team, bringing their experience and insight to the policy challenges facing the United States, which the University of Pennsylvania helps to address through our research and through Penn Washington’s Policy Impact Programs. Reflecting on IWD 2026,…
Penn Washington is pleased to announce that Nicole (Nikki) Hinshaw has joined the team as Global Policy Programs Coordinator. Hinshaw comes to Penn Washington from Purdue University’s Institute for Tech Diplomacy, where she built cross-sector partnerships with industry leaders, diplomatic missions, academic institutions, and the U.S. government in support of democratic values through technology policy.…
Contact Biography Nicole (Nikki) Hinshaw is the Global Policy Programs Coordinator at Penn Washington. Hinshaw is a global communication and strategic partnerships professional with expertise in public and citizen diplomacy and international education. She is deeply committed to amplifying the role of higher education institutions in shaping global policy and strengthening connections between local and…