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AI Poses Opportunities, Risks for Higher Education

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

Generative AI is bringing Schumpeterian disruption to the stodgy world of higher education. As in other areas of the economy, the AI revolution is changing the university landscape. It is exposing long-standing flaws in the institution, perhaps most fundamentally its overreliance on exams, term papers, and grades as proxies for learning. This moment of creative destruction poses both challenges and opportunities for administrators like me and the students we serve.

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The Water Fight over Data Centers Is a Distraction. The Grid Fight Is the Real Story.

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

Meta recently announced it would expand Project Hyperion, its data center under construction in Richland Parish, Louisiana, into a 5-gigawatt, $50 billion facility that will be one of the largest AI campuses in the world. The announcement landed amid an increasingly organized, bipartisan movement to block future data center construction. By one estimate, opponents blocked or delayed 75 projects representing $130 billion in investment in the first quarter of 2026 alone, citing water and electricity consumption among other concerns. But a closer look at these concerns shows that some of the loudest objections do not survive contact with the numbers.

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The Apple-Epic Feud Goes to the Supreme Court Over a Question of Judicial Power

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

In what has become an annual tradition, the last day of the Supreme Court term was marked by blockbuster opinions on several hot-button topics. But hidden among the resolution of this year’s cases was an interesting note about next year’s docket. The Court agreed to review a contempt order in Apple’s years-long antitrust fight with Epic Games. At the center of the fight is a deceptively technical question with a long history: How literally should courts read their own orders when policing fast-moving industries?

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AI Speech Is Protected, But Not Immune From Liability

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

Last week, I explained why many generative AI outputs constitute speech that warrants First Amendment protection. This post explores the ramifications of that conclusion. Importantly, this protection does not mean chatbots are immune from liability. Courts, litigants, and regulators still have meaningful tools to address the consequences of generative AI activity. The key question is not whether AI speech can be regulated, but what the regulation seeks to do and what effect enforcement would have on speech interests.

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Should the First Amendment Protect Generative AI Outputs?

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

The most important free speech question of the decade may not be about social media. It may be about chatbots. As generative AI reshapes how people communicate, courts and legislators must confront whether and how the First Amendment protects AI outputs. Last year, the first court to face this question punted, explaining at the motion to dismiss stage that it was “not prepared” yet to hold that a large language model’s output is speech. That case settled without a definitive answer. But the question won’t stay dormant, and First Amendment principles compel a clear conclusion: many chatbot outputs are protected speech, which should shape how courts handle AI-related litigation.

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Opening Doors with Alumni: Meet Joshua Williams

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There are numerous roads to law school, and no one-size fits all path to a successful legal career. Follow along with our series highlighting BC Law students and how they got here! 

Previous entries: Sara Womble (Winston Salem, NC); Elias Massion (Nashville, TN); Samina Gagné (London);Alvin Synarong (Murfreesboro, Tennessee); Ruchita Jain (Edina, Minnesota); Nicole Bauer (Michigan);Carlos Robles-Cruz (Puerto Rico); Taha Din (Naperville, IL); Timothy St. Pierre (Brunswick, Maine); Tobias Wilcken Jørgensen LLM ’25 (Denmark); Leena Assad (Dracut, MA).

Name: Joshua Williams

Hometown: Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands

Educational Background: Bachelor’s degree in marketing from Saint Leo University in 2020; master’s degree in management from Harvard University in 2022

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Supreme Court Considers FCC’s Jury Trial Problem

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has loomed large on the Supreme Court’s docket recently. Last term, the Justices addressed E-Rate fraud prevention efforts, the agency’s authority to bind courts, and the constitutionality of its Universal Service Program. Now the Commission is before the High Court. This new case, FCC v. AT&T, asks whether the FCC’s power to levy punitive fines violates the Seventh Amendment right to a trial by jury—a question whose resolution could reshape not just telecommunications regulation but the balance of power among agencies, courts, and juries.

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Supreme Court Questions Broadband Provider Liability for User Misconduct

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

Intermediary liability—when a company should be liable for users’ misuse of its product by users—has been a long-standing issue in tech policy. Two years ago, the Supreme Court dismissed a case alleging Twitter aided and abetted terrorism by allowing ISIS to recruit on its platform. This week, the Court weighed in again, hearing argument in a case involving a billion-dollar judgment against broadband provider Cox Communications for failing to terminate accounts suspected of copyright infringement. The case raises significant questions about copyright enforceability, broadband providers’ role as gateways to the internet, and digital equity concerns. The justices seemed doubtful that notification of user misuse was sufficient to trigger liability, although they struggled to find an alternative that balanced the equities of the case.

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Analyzing the Charter-Cox Merger

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

Earlier this year, Charter Communications, Incorporated and Cox Communications announced a $34.5 billion proposed merger. If completed, the combined company would become both the largest cable television provider and the largest broadband provider in the country.

At first glance, one might be concerned about a proposal to merge the second and third-largest cable providers into a single behemoth. But to describe the merger in these simplistic terms fails to appreciate both the challenges facing companies in mature industries and the revolutionary changes affecting the telecommunications industry. This proposed deal is not a power grab, but a rational response to a maturing, intensely competitive market. That’s the argument that I’ve made in my latest article as part of the Free State Foundation’s Perspectives series.

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Empathy: The driving force of entrepreneurship

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For people facing long odds, an entrepreneurial mind-set matters

This post was originally published in the Boston Business Journal. Authors & Innovators is a regular column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, BC Law adjunct professor and founder of Project Entrepreneur, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.

About 77 million Americans have a criminal record. Experts expect that number to be 100 million by 2030. For the estimated 600,000 people returning home from incarceration annually, a criminal record creates substantial barriers to obtaining housing, employment, government benefits and continuing education, due to myriad federal and state restrictions. Getting an ID and finding a job — any job — are immediate priorities. No surprise that recidivism rates for returning citizens range from 29% to 59%, depending on the state.

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