The future of the net neutrality fight

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been tussling for roughly two decades over regulations that require internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally. And that battle is about to enter a new round. Chair Jessica Rosenworcel will lead her fellow Democrats to impose the rules, known as net neutrality, for the third time. A court overturned them when a Democratic-controlled FCC first voted to put them in place in 2010. Democrats revamped the rules and passed them again in 2015—only for Republicans to repeal them two years later. Tom Wheeler, a Democrat who chaired the FCC from 2013 to 2017, says the technology underpinning the fight has evolved since the panel last took up the issue. Whereas in his time the debate centered on social media, streaming video and mobile apps, now he sees artificial intelligence playing a dominant role. However, Wheeler said, "the thing that we can absolutely, positively be sure of is this isn’t going to stop with AI. We didn’t know, in 2015, about AI. We don’t know what’s coming tomorrow. But we do know that there are basic principles. Do you have just and reasonable access on nondiscriminatory terms to the most important network of the 21st century and the ability to deal with whatever technology the marketplace throws at you in the future?"