Inside AI Policy

May 16, 2025

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By Mariam Baksh

Amid statements from leading Democrats bashing President Trump’s collaboration with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on artificial intelligence, key China hawks have introduced legislation aimed at enabling a more accommodating export control system for U.S. companies selling computer chips foundational to the technology.

By Charlie Mitchell

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson in his first appearance before congressional appropriators detailed a vigorous agenda targeting illicit claims and conduct around artificial intelligence, underscoring the FTC’s focus under President Trump on enforcing existing laws rather than crafting new policy.

By Rick Weber

Tech leader OpenAI is asking a federal district court to revise a previous order to allow the company to take data management actions that would in effect delete information sought by the New York Times and other plaintiffs, in a landmark copyright infringement lawsuit.

By Rick Weber

A new report by RAND Corp. examines the tradeoffs faced by policymakers from promoting the growth of artificial intelligence to beat China and the resulting job losses from those AI investments.

By Charlie Mitchell

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has withdrawn a regulatory proposal on “data brokers” crafted during the Biden administration to address privacy and data misuse concerns, including that foreign adversaries could make use of such data by employing artificial intelligence as well as to train their own advanced AI models.

By Charlie Mitchell

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies offers a detailed analysis of threats China poses to the U.S. in the artificial intelligence realm, in a package of recommendations on how the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security should strengthen the now-withdrawn “AI diffusion rule” intended to control exports of AI technologies.

The Business Software Alliance says a White House task force should direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop an “AI education framework” patterned after the agency’s cyber workforce initiative, under a mandate in President Trump’s executive order on artificial intelligence and education.

The Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Officer Douglas Matty told House lawmakers that access to “authoritative” data is crucial to the Defense Department’s data management strategy and its deployment of artificial intelligence technologies.

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced the Traveler Privacy Protection Act, legislation that once again seeks to curb the Transportation Security Administration’s growing use of facial recognition technology.

Federal Reserve Board Governor Michael Barr in a recent speech discussed “two scenarios” for how generative artificial intelligence will affect “workers and the labor market,” including the possibility of a complete transformation of the economy that requires dramatic reassessments of monetary policy.

Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) argued a mandatory pause on state AI rules and laws is needed to counter China’s growing global tech influence by enabling the federal government to modernize its data systems with millions of dollars in artificial intelligence investments, during debate on the House reconciliation bill in the Energy and Commerce Committee.

House Energy and Commerce Republicans have released reconciliation legislation to cut the federal deficit by $880 billion over 10 years that includes spending $500 million to modernize and secure federal data systems through the deployment of artificial intelligence, while preempting states from enforcing any AI laws or regulations, setting up for a contentious May 13 committee markup.

A recent House Science Committee hearing on quantum computing prompted a partisan discourse on the impacts of President Trump’s research funding cuts, with industry witnesses agreeing on the synergies of quantum and U.S. leadership in developing artificial intelligence technologies.

Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-TX) is planning to introduce legislation to speed the development and uptake of artificial intelligence technology, contrasting his approach with an industry-endorsed effort to maintain an evaluation program for frontier models at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s AI Safety Institute.

Developers of frontier artificial intelligence models were most concerned about infrastructure issues in their comments on the upcoming White House AI action, while standards and regulations topped the list for industry groups, according to an AI-powered analysis by the Institute for Progress.

White House AI and crypto advisor David Sacks says the Commerce Department’s withdrawal of a controversial Biden-era rule on artificial intelligence-related exports is crucial to American success in global tech competition with China.

The New York governor’s office describes the Empire State’s robust artificial intelligence research and development ecosystem in comments on the upcoming White House AI action plan, and explains the importance of ongoing support for programs funded by the CHIPS and Science Act as well as federal efforts to secure energy supplies and protect intellectual property.

The University at Albany, a founding member of NIST’s AI Safety Institute Consortium and a partner in the National Semiconductor Technology Center, urges the Trump administration to pursue “domain-specific policies on AI deployment” in its upcoming artificial intelligence action plan, including mandatory security requirements on uses in critical infrastructure.

The Center for Data Innovation, a tech-sector backed policy group, is keeping up the pressure for federal preemption of state artificial intelligence regulation, asserting in a new posting that a national AI framework is needed to foster “light-touch,” pro-innovation rules enabling the U.S. to prevail in global competition with China.

The Edison Electric Institute in comments to the Energy Department argues that the growth of data centers to support artificial intelligence -- and accommodating their need for power by interconnecting to the electricity grid -- should include funding for transmission upgrades to protect consumers from rising costs, a recommendation that underscores the challenges faced by the tech sector in its drive for AI development.

A policy roadmap from the influential trade group USTelecom describes three priorities for integrating broadband into U.S. efforts to establish global leadership on artificial intelligence, with an emphasis on clearing barriers to building the necessary infrastructure to support AI development and crafting voluntary standards through a collaborative process.

The Information Technology Industry Council is pressing the Department of Energy to make its massive databases of scientific and other information available to spur AI developers to produce models that benefit society, in response to a request for comments on how DOE could assist with the siting and building of data centers that support artificial intelligence technologies.

Tech policy analysts from free market-oriented think tanks largely praised the Trump administration’s decision to pull back the Biden-era “AI diffusion” rule aimed at controlling artificial intelligence exports to different “tiers” of trading partners, although experts posed questions on the scope of the withdrawal as well as on potential national security risks.

Industry and key lawmakers have issued supportive statements on the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the controversial Bureau of Industry and Security “AI diffusion” rule, while calling for a risk-based replacement that bolsters artificial intelligence-related exports to friendly countries.

A key witness at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing pointed to whistleblower protections for employees of AI developers as an important way lawmakers might seek to reconcile a need for visibility into AI systems with concerns over intellectual property protection stoked by competitive pressures from China.

The Trump administration has decided to scrap the artificial intelligence “diffusion” rule intended to set security controls on AI exports to numerous U.S. allies and partners, a regulation that generated heavy industry criticism before and after its release at the end of the Biden administration.

The Treasury Department is asking a federal district court to deny Democratic state attorneys general access to information about the activities of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, including its infiltration of sensitive databases and its use of artificial intelligence, in a landmark lawsuit that could determine the fate of the Trump administration’s government downsizing efforts.

Elon Musk has renewed his legal attacks on OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in a motion rejecting OpenAI’s counterclaims in a high-profile lawsuit initiated by Musk, after Altman earlier this week announced dropping plans for his company to become a for-profit entity.

A federal district judge has directed Meta Platforms to explain its assertions about the “transformative” use of books as part of datasets for training its Llama generative artificial intelligence model, even questioning the tech giant’s reference to a past Supreme Court ruling in support of its fair use claims in the landmark copyright infringement case.

OpenAI has abandoned its plans to pursue a corporate restructuring to become a for-profit enterprise, citing ongoing discussions with the attorneys general of Delaware and California in its decision to retain nonprofit status.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has released a report that summarizes expert opinions about environmental impacts from the growth of data centers that support artificial intelligence, signaling an emerging consensus on greater coordination between the tech industry and electricity generators on siting facilities to power AI development.

A new report by the RAND Corp. challenges the prevailing assumptions of U.S. policymakers about scaling up large-language models to beat China in the race for general artificial intelligence, laying out a more expansive strategy that anticipates uncertainties.

President Trump’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget request would preserve funding for artificial intelligence research at the National Science Foundation amid about $163 billion in overall federal discretionary spending cuts, signaling a continued priority for NSF’s role in developing national AI policies.

The House Science Committee this week favorably reported the Nucleic Standards for Biosecurity Act, boosting the prospect of the National Institute of Standards and Technology setting standards for AI safety in the biotech space.