The Hoover Institution has positioned itself at the forefront of artificial intelligence policy research, leveraging its unique position at Stanford University to bridge the gap between technological innovation and governance frameworks.
Located on Stanford's campus with an additional presence in Washington, DC, the Institution serves as the nation's leading research center dedicated to generating policy ideas that promote economic prosperity, national security, and democratic governance. What distinguishes Hoover from other policy organizations is its status as a center of scholarly excellence and its ability to bring academic scholarship to public audiences.
The Institution's Technology Policy Accelerator conducts research and develops insights to help government and business leaders better understand emerging technology and its geopolitical implications. This initiative is moving into high gear, focusing on helping leaders seize opportunities, mitigate risks, and advance American interests and values. Their work covers recent developments and over-the-horizon implications of critical technologies including AI, robotics, neuroscience, semiconductors, and space.
In February 2025, the Hoover Institution released the latest edition of the Stanford Emerging Technology Review (SETR) report, offering American policymakers a comprehensive overview of how ten frontier technologies, from artificial intelligence to robotics, are transforming the world. This collaboration between Hoover and the Stanford School of Engineering serves as a one-stop primer into state-of-the-art innovations and future developments.
During recent events, Hoover and Stanford panelists have weighed in on pressing AI-related topics, including labor and workforce adaptation, antitrust concerns, innovation challenges, and regulatory frameworks. The experts emphasized that while AI presents enormous opportunities for productivity and innovation, it also poses serious challenges for labor markets, competition policy, and governance. They concluded that effective adaptation will require coordinated efforts across the private sector, government, and academia.
The Institution is also addressing the political dimensions of AI development. The Hoover Institution's Center for Revitalizing American Institutions and Stanford GSB recently convened researchers from across academia and industry to explore a critical question: how can we make AI more trustworthy to people across the political spectrum in a polarized world? This research examines the politics and polarization of Large Language Models, AI agents, and chatbots.
Hoover scholars emphasize that at this moment in the global competition for leadership in frontier technology, Americans should adopt the attitude of "game on, not game over," adding that "a principal foreign policy challenge for the nation is harnessing emerging technologies and understanding their implications faster and better than their adversaries." They highlight universities' crucial role in sustaining America's innovation leadership through basic research projects unconstrained by product development timelines. "Research on the frontiers of knowledge with no foreseeable commercial product, like understanding quantum physics, is called basic or fundamental research. It requires years, sometimes decades, to bear fruit. But without it, commercial innovations would not be possible."