A Review-Based Regulatory Framework for AI

Abstract: Artificial intelligence regulation faces a challenge that is not new: how to govern a rapidly evolving technology whose long-term capability and risk space cannot be enumerated in advance. Human and pharmaceutical R&D faced the same challenge in the twentieth century. The response — centering regulation on expert review boards operating under principled ethical frameworks and evolving through precedent — produced a regulatory architecture that has successfully accommodated technologies, from recombinant DNA to CRISPR gene editing that could not have been anticipated when the framework was established. This paper argues that AI regulation requires the same response and develops a Review-Board-Based (RBB) framework for AI built on that historical precedent. The framework is designed as an input to structured, risk-based approaches to AI regulation.

 

Nick Vonortas is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at The George Washington University. His teaching and research interests are in industrial organization, in the economics of technological change, and in technology and innovation policy and strategy. He currently holds the Fulbright Canada Special Foundation Fellowship “Research Chair in Science and Society” at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He also held during 2014-2025 a ‘São Paulo Excellence Chair’ in Technology and Innovation Policy at the University of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. Dr Vonortas is editor of the peer-reviewed journal Science and Public Policy.

 

Gregory Prastacos is Professor of Operations Research at the School of Business of Stevens Institute of Technology, where he also served as Dean (2012-24). He has held visiting appointments in France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, India, and China. His research focuses on analytics and digital innovation. An elected Fellow of the Washington Academy of Sciences, and recipient of INFORMS’ Edelman Award, he serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals, is the Principal Investigator of the MaCuDE global research initiative and is the co-founder and chair of AACSB’s Digital Transformation Affinity Group.

 

Antonio Llopis-Jepsen is a Physicist at the U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for International Science and Technology Policy at The George Washington University. Their research focuses on the governance of critical and emerging technologies, including AI regulatory design, market concentration in AI, and defense technology. Their work applying compulsory-licensing precedent to AI appeared in the Journal of Technology Transfer. At ARL, they have also served as Executive Fellow to the Laboratory Director, advising on engagements with university partners and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and as a Congressional Affairs Liaison. They hold a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of North Texas and an M.A. in Science and Technology Policy from The George Washington University.