Gregory S. McNeal (Pepperdine University – Rick J. Caruso School of Law) has posted The Right To Compute on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
In 2025, legislatures across the United States introduced more than one thousand bills seeking to regulate artificial intelligence, ranging from bans on algorithmic “medical advice” to pre-clearance regimes for model developers. While often framed as safety measures, these proposals share a distinct constitutional defect: they seek to condition access to the primary instruments of modern inquiry on government approval. This Article argues that such restrictions violate a fundamental, though under-theorized, First Amendment interest: the “Right to Compute.”
Drawing on three strands of jurisprudence, including listener rights (Lamont, Pico), code-as-speech (Bernstein, Corley), and medium neutrality (Packingham), the Article demonstrates that computation has become the indispensable infrastructure of thought. Consequently, regulatory frameworks that impose topic-based bans or developer licensing function as unconstitutional prior restraints on the cognitive process itself.
To resolve the tension between emerging risk and intellectual freedom, the Article proposes a Presumption of Computational Liberty. Grounded in the normative principle of Extended Cognitive Freedom, this framework places the burden on the state to justify restrictions on general-purpose computational tools through strict scrutiny. As computation increasingly mediates human reasoning, recognizing this right is essential not only to resolve current regulatory conflicts but to preserve the enduring constitutional link between the freedom of thought and the means of thinking.
Recommended.