Roger Martin applies Buchanan's economics to AI regulatory strategy before enacting rules
RogerLMartin · x · 2026-09-28
Strategy scholar Roger L. Martin publishes a long-form essay, "AI Regulatory Strategy: Thinking Before Enacting", applying Nobel economist James Buchanan's thinking to how AI should be regulated.
Key points:
- AI regulation has sprinted from niche wonk topic to the 800-pound gorilla of the news cycle, with US politicians split along party lines: Democrats for aggressive regulation, Republicans for restraint.
- OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei have publicly begged the US government to regulate their industry — Martin argues this is unsurprising, drawing on his 1982 work on Ontario's Health Professions Legislative Review.
- His core argument: calling for regulation is easy; designing net-positive regulation is hard, and regulators should think strategy through before enacting anything.
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