Governing Distributed Intelligence: AI Policy Must Move from Tools to Institutions

Are we regulating the wrong thing in AI?Most AI policy focuses on models—their capabilities, risks, and control. But what if the real transformation is happening elsewhere?In this episode, Jiajie Zhang argues that AI is becoming part of society's cognitive infrastructure, shifting intelligence from individuals and stand-alone models to distributed systems composed of humans, AI, data, workflows, and institutions. The challenge is no longer simply governing AI tools; it is redesigning education, science, healthcare, and public institutions for an era of distributed intelligence.This episode explores why the future of AI policy may depend less on regulating models and more on building the institutions that can effectively govern human-AI systems.