White House AI czar defends Trump push to rein in state rules
ManuelSummary:
The measure marks the latest in a series of moves by Trump to boost the AI industry, including steps to make it easier to build infrastructure and increase energy supply for power-hungry data centers.
White House AI czar David Sacks defended President Donald Trump’s push to rein in state-level regulation of artificial intelligence over objections from Democrats, saying the move seeks to ease a growing compliance burden for companies.
Under the directive signed by Trump on Thursday, Sacks said, the administration is moving toward developing with Congress a common standard for oversight of the emerging technology. Right now, AI model development can take place across multiple states, each with its own regulatory standards.
“You have fifty different states running in fifty different directions. That type of compliance regime will be hard for small companies and startups, especially innovators,” Sacks said in an interview Friday on Bloomberg Tech. “What we need is a single federal or national framework for AI regulation.”
Championed by Sacks, the order culminates months of lobbying by AI companies led by OpenAI and Alphabet Inc.’s Google as well as venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, who have warned that state laws popping up across the country risk overwhelming a nascent industry and potentially harming US competitiveness with China in artificial intelligence. The measure marks the latest in a series of moves by Trump to boost the AI industry, including steps to make it easier to build infrastructure and increase energy supply for power-hungry data centers.
Trump directed the US attorney general to create a task force to challenge state rules that run afoul of his goal of promoting AI adoption. It also permits the Commerce Department to review whether federal broadband funding should be revoked from localities’ with AI measures that the administration deems onerous. Future discretionary grants may also be withheld by other agencies, unless states back away from enacting laws that the Trump team sees as impeding innovation.
The order is widely expected to face legal challenges, especially from states with provisions already in place. California State Senator Scott Wiener, who crafted landmark legislation in the Golden State that Governor Gavin Newsom signed in September, said that setting safety rules has been “a core pillar of state law for decades.”
“It’s absurd for Trump to think he can weaponize the DOJ and Commerce to undermine those state rights,” Wiener said in a statement. “If the Trump Administration tries to enforce this ridiculous order, we will see them in court.”
Sacks said the provision calling for the Justice Department to sue states over AI rules was designed to go after the most burdensome regulations. He expressed uncertainty about whether the administration would seek to challenge California or New York, but he did single out a law in Colorado seeking to prohibit algorithmic discrimination as “probably the most excessive.”
Trump pivoted to the executive order after White House officials and Republican lawmakers failed to include similar legislation preempting state AI laws in a must-pass defense bill earlier this month. Hours after the White House signing ceremony, Democratic US Senator Brian Schatz said he planned legislation that would seek a full repeal of the order.
“Embracing the amazing possibilities of AI can’t come at the cost of leaving Americans vulnerable to its profound risks, which is exactly what this executive order does,” Schatz said in a statement. “Congress has a responsibility to get this technology right – and quickly – but states must be allowed to act in the public interest in the meantime.”
US lawmakers have struggled for years to pass comprehensive AI legislation, and there’s currently no federal standard governing the technology, leaving local authorities to fill that void. The order calls for Sacks and other administration officials to work with Congress on legislation for a “minimally burdensome national standard.”
As AI becomes a central part of daily life, taking on roles such as assessing job applications, identifying criminal suspects, handling medical claims and creating content nearly impossible to distinguish from genuine photos or video, state lawmakers have expressed eagerness to impose some rules of the road. Trump’s order will complicate those efforts, putting any state passing legislation into potential conflict with the White House.
Tech companies have largely opposed state-level regulatory efforts, particularly in California and New York, that would hold companies accountable for harms caused by AI products like chatbots. Trump and his allies have touted the AI boom as a plus to the US economy, even as it poses political challenges, including voter concerns that data centers are spiking energy bills and fears that the technology will spur job losses.
Sacks, a venture capitalist who joined the administration in January, pushed back against those concerns on employment, saying that so far the AI race in the US has generated more jobs than it has cost.
“We are seeing an overall AI boom that’s benefiting the economy,” he said. “Certainly there can be job displacement in the future but we have not seen any of that so far. It’s been quite the opposite.”
Source: Bloomberg
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