Between them, Richard Allan and Nicklas Berild Lundblad have over 50 years of experience in internet technology policy. And they still love talking about it.
In this podcast, they dig into major technology policy questions before policy makers, teasing out the trade-offs they have to consider. They reflect on their own experiences from both sides of the business and politics divide.
Some episodes are aimed at technology policy professionals as Richard and Nicklas share what they have learnt along the way. They believe there is public value in services having effective policy teams and want to help these develop, grow and, well, make new mistakes...
In this first episode of 2026, Nicklas Berild Lundblad and Richard Allen explore how AI tools are transforming the craft of public policy. Their core argument: if you’re regulating technology, you need to understand it firsthand—and the barriers to experimenting have never been lower.
The Essential Toolkit
Get comfortable with the command line. Every operating system has a terminal (Command+Space then ”Terminal” on Mac, search ”Terminal” on Windows). Pair it with your favorite chatbot for a 30-minute crash course. This direct communication with your computer is foundational for everything else.
Install an IDE. VS Code or PyCharm (both free) provide clean environments to run code. The goal isn’t becoming a programmer—it’s achieving code readability so you can understand and guide AI-generated code.
Learn Python basics. Twenty hours of investment unlocks a career-long skill set. Focus on reading code, not writing it—LLMs handle the heavy lifting while you become the quality-control human in the loop.
Run local models with Ollama. This free tool lets you download and run LLMs entirely on your machine—no API costs, no data leaving your computer. Start with small models like Tiny Dolphin, then explore Llama or Gemma. Running the same prompt hundreds of times reveals how probabilistic these systems really are.
Explore GitHub. A vast repository of ready-made code. Search for whatever interests you and load it into your IDE.
Key Tips
Use chatbots as tutors. Stuck? Ask. The days of getting blocked by technical hurdles are over.
Be blunt. Tell the chatbot directly when it’s wrong. Start fresh chats to escape context traps.
Start with a problem statement. Before coding, articulate exactly what you need. This forces clarity your team probably lacks.
Build, don’t buy. The economics have shifted. Custom internal tools—like parliamentary monitoring systems—are now cheaper and more tailored than off-the-shelf products.
Research APIs first. Run a deep research query on any API before coding against it to get current documentation.
The bottom line: spend a few days learning these tools and you’ll understand AI technology at a level that transforms how you think about regulating it.
30 Dec 2025
Regulate Tech - The Return!
In 2026 Regulate Tech returns. Here we go through a few new ideas, where we are in life and what comes next. We also discuss 2025 and 2026 - and share ideas on how the new year will unfold.
Enjoy!
Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad
24 Oct 2024
Regulate Tech 2024:8 Power
In this episode we discuss how we should think about, analyze and understand power in tech policy. We are bad at talking about power because it is such a loaded term - but all politics, and all technology, in some way relates to the exercise of power, so we need to have a working theory of power to make sense of it all!
Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad
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