Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
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Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) is a research and educational institute that advocates policies intended to accelerate technological innovation, productivity and adoption. Founded in 2006, it describes itself as a nonpartisan section 501(c)(3) organization. AI-policy work is part of its broader technology and economic agenda, including research through its Center for Data Innovation.[1]
Approach to AI governance
ITIF's institutional principles favor innovation and market competition while accepting a role for public investment and targeted regulation. It emphasizes the costs of delaying useful technologies and argues that government should help people and communities adjust to technological change. These priorities shape its policy analysis; its self-description as independent or nonpartisan does not imply the absence of substantive preferences about regulation.[1]
Daniel Castro's February 2023 Ten Principles report proposes criteria for evaluating AI regulation. They include attention to performance rather than prescribed processes, sector-specific approaches, clear definitions, existing law, costs and benefits, equal treatment of firms and access to expertise. The report argues that preventing harm from systems should be considered alongside the benefits forgone when regulation impedes deployment.[2]
These principles address regulatory design rather than granting every AI application an exemption from law. The publication recommends testing whether an intervention is needed and whether a less burdensome method can achieve its purpose. Its concern about innovation costs is an advocacy argument for policymakers to assess, not a demonstrated conclusion that every AI-specific rule reduces public welfare.[2]
Selecting responses to different risks
In May 2024, Hodan Omaar and Castro published Picking the Right Policy Solutions for AI Concerns. The report examines 28 concerns across privacy, work, society, consumer and market issues, catastrophic scenarios, intellectual property, and safety. It distinguishes AI-specific regulation from generally applicable law, and regulatory interventions from research support, standards or other nonregulatory policies.[3]
The report's framework also allows a conclusion that no new policy is warranted for a particular concern. Its central argument is that different problems require different responses: for example, a broader privacy or political-advertising rule may address an AI-enabled problem without regulating AI as a single technology class. The classification is the authors' assessment of policy needs. It does not resolve contested factual questions about risk or replace the actual text of existing legislation.[3]
Competition-policy engagement
ITIF's May 2024 submission to Canada's Competition Bureau illustrates its participation in a formal policy consultation. It was presented on behalf of the Center for Data Innovation, the Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy and the Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness. The submission urges an innovation-oriented approach and rejects requiring proponents of technology to establish the absence of possible harm as a general starting point.[4]
It discusses the changing organization of AI markets and argues that market forces, existing rules, tort law and targeted interventions can often address risks. This is evidence of ITIF's recommendation to the Bureau, not evidence that the Bureau adopted it. The submission's treatment of corporate integration is also a position in a competition debate rather than a finding that any particular company's conduct complies with competition law.[4]
Funding and organizational boundaries
ITIF identifies corporate, foundation and individual supporters. The donor page reviewed in September 2026 lists supporters contributing more than $10,000 in the preceding fiscal year, including Alphabet, Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and NVIDIA, alongside other businesses, associations and foundations. It links tax returns, including a fiscal-year 2024–25 filing.[5]
The published threshold is not an exact contribution amount for each donor and does not establish which project a donor funded. ITIF's Center for Data Innovation is covered here as a program of the foundation; its outputs should not automatically be attributed to an unrelated organization with a similar name.[5][1]
Selected contributions
- Ten Principles (2023), regulatory-design recommendations.[2]
- Canadian AI and competition consultation submission (May 2024).[4]
- Picking the Right Policy Solutions for AI Concerns (May 2024).[3]
Related articles
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 ITIF, About ITIF: A Champion for Innovation. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Daniel Castro, Ten Principles for Regulation That Does Not Harm AI Innovation, February 8, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Hodan Omaar and Daniel Castro, Picking the Right Policy Solutions for AI Concerns, May 20, 2024. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 ITIF, Comments to the Competition Bureau Canada Regarding AI and Competition, May 3, 2024. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 ITIF, Our Supporters. Accessed September 12, 2026.