On January 6, 2026, researchers from the American University Internet Governance Lab (IGL) led a half-day tutorial at the 59th annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-59) focused on strengthening empirical methods for internet governance and digital regulation research.

The session, “Advanced Text Analytics Through NLP and Generative AI”, demonstrated how open-source NLP, machine learning, and generative AI tools can be used to analyze regulatory consultations, public comments, and multistakeholder submissions that shape internet governance decision-making.

Led by Derrick L. Cogburn, Dr. Tahir Ekin, and Dr. Haiman Wong, the tutorial used the 2025 U.S. AI Regulatory Reform Request for Information (RFI) Comments as a case study to show how analysis can surface patterns in stakeholder influence, regulatory priorities, and governance discourse across the digital policy ecosystem. The tutorial drew a large and engaged audience. Dr. Cogburn highlighted that providing participants with a private GitHub repository containing datasets, documentation, and starter scripts enabled hands-on engagement and made the session one of the team’s most effective internet governance–focused tutorials to date.

IGL research associates Juliana Woods, Rachi Adikhari, Sofia Torres, and Juan David López Becerra supported the session, which also included virtual contributions from collaborators in Colombia (Sofia Torres, and Juan David López Becerra). Building on this momentum, the team plans to propose the tutorial again for HICSS 60.