An anxiously awaited Commerce Department interim final rule on artificial intelligence export controls is facing widespread criticism from major tech industry groups upset by both its substance and the process for releasing the complex regulation at the tail end of the Biden administration.
January 15, 2025
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The White House Office of Management and Budget is directing federal agencies to assess the energy and water usage of the government’s data centers to accommodate an anticipated increase in artificial intelligence, in a guidance memo implementing a 2023 law to update federal IT systems.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is inviting comment on updated guidance for mitigating the risk of dual-use artificial intelligence models being misused, after an initial draft was roundly criticized by major industry and civil society groups alike.
President Biden’s executive order for constructing several privately owned data centers on federal sites, to support the development of artificial intelligence, assigns the Defense Department the unique task of conducting environmental reviews to speed future permitting decisions for such facilities.
Industry groups and policy professionals see President Biden’s new executive order to promote the buildout of AI data centers as a potential lead-in to Trump administration efforts on ensuring adequate infrastructure, with the U.S. tech sector racing to prevail in the global competition over artificial intelligence.
The Commerce Department has issued a final rule prohibiting the import of connected vehicle software and hardware systems from China and Russia, citing national security concerns and preventing adversaries from collecting data on American citizens gathered by automated vehicles powered by artificial intelligence.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has released an artificial intelligence strategy spelling out “challenges and goals” for using AI internally and promoting broader adoption, with an eye toward risk management as well as positioning the U.S. for an increasingly competitive global environment.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has prepared an interim final rule that notes the security benefits of open-weight artificial intelligence models after multiple federal agencies have recommended restricting access to AI model weights as a way to mitigate the risk of their misuse.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has named a new chair and members to its patent advisory committee, tapping attorneys with extensive experience in artificial intelligence issues to help advise the regulatory body as it continues to shape groundbreaking policies on the transformational technology.
A key U.S. tech group is raising concerns about the outgoing Biden administration’s plan to issue new export controls on artificial intelligence, primarily to restrict China’s access to the technology, even while House lawmakers have issued a bipartisan call for the Commerce Department to quickly release the interim final rule.
Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) has introduced two bills on the use of artificial intelligence in health care, the first legislative proposals on AI in the 119th Congress, signaling the continued high-profile role the link between AI and health care will have under the new Republican majority.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), the newly minted chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has scheduled a Jan. 15 confirmation hearing on President-elect Trump’ s pick to lead the Department of Energy, over the objections of ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-NM) who says the nominee, Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright, has not yet fulfilled his financial disclosure obligations.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been formally ratified as chairman of a Senate Commerce Committee with wide-ranging jurisdiction and experience on artificial intelligence, but an as-yet unannounced agenda for AI.
A Congressional Research Service report advises the new 119th Congress on the need to harmonize emerging regulatory requirements on frameworks for the safe and effective use artificial intelligence in health care, to ensure the technology delivers on the benefits promised by its developers.
David Sacks, tapped by President-elect Trump to serve as White House artificial intelligence and crypto policy czar, has weighed in with a recent X post on Meta’s decision to stop fact-checking on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, and is also commenting on “big tech” job discrimination against those who served in the first Trump administration.
The free market-focused R Street Institute says policymakers must confront the risks associated with artificial intelligence in order to reap extensive cybersecurity and other benefits, in a new package of policy priorities for consideration by the incoming Trump administration and 119th Congress.
Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, is urging government, industry and academia to unite behind an investment, training and export strategy to propel U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence, while pointing to President-elect Trump’s first-term work on AI as providing the basis for a second-term agenda.
A new Department of Justice rule on transfers of bulk sensitive personal data to “countries of concern” provides artificial intelligence-related examples of when restrictions apply in data brokerage and related transactions and in employment agreements, while also describing a potential prohibited “evasion” utilizing AI.
Cybersecurity specialists are being excluded when companies and organizations consider adopting artificial intelligence technologies, according to security auditors whose recommendations for overcoming those barriers could be a boon to AI for countering cyber attacks.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a digital rights public interest group, is backing a Justice Department final rule on transfers of sensitive bulk data to countries of concern as a “solid start” in addressing privacy challenges from data brokers, amid ongoing industry opposition to a regulation with significant AI implications.
The internal rules adopted by the House for the 119th Congress are intended to encourage use of artificial intelligence with “appropriate safeguards” and represent an important step forward, according to the independent POPVOX Foundation, which urges lawmakers to follow up by loosening restrictions on innovation, launching a working group on AI uses in the chamber and more.
The Information Technology Industry Council is urging federal officials to continue engaging with stakeholders on a final, AI-related Justice Department rule on bulk-data transfers to China and other “countries of concern,” as industry groups look for Congress and the incoming Trump administration to make changes or pull back the regulation.
Former security officials say China’s use of emerging artificial intelligence technologies against the United States could be assisted from the data collected by TikTok on its users and an Obama-era data breach of the White House Office of Personnel Management.
The bipartisanship leadership of the recently renewed House China select committee sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo urging the Biden administration to quickly issue a pending rule to expand export controls that would deny Beijing access to artificial intelligence technologies.
The proposed House rules for the 119th Congress include a section on integrating artificial intelligence into the chamber’s operations and would renew the influential select committee on China, though the fate of the package is tied to the chamber’s uncertain vote for speaker on Jan. 3.
An analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies is recommending a reframing of the policy debate over export controls to counter China’s economic and military prowess, calling for a focus on the compute power that supports artificial intelligence in a piece of advice likely to resonate within the incoming Trump administration.
The Department of Justice has proposed remedies in its antitrust case against Google that could diminish cybersecurity and other offerings for the company’s users due to prohibitions related to artificial intelligence, according to the director of the Center for Data Innovation.
Elon Musk, founder of X.AI Corp. and a close ally of President-elect Trump, is telling a federal district court that OpenAI’s plans to raise capital by restructuring management of the company to a public-benefit corporation would undermine competition, the latest in a years-long legal dispute between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Class-action plaintiffs are accusing Google of ignoring guidelines from the Federal Trade Commission for developing artificial intelligence that complies with copyright protections, in a consolidated complaint to a federal district court in California.
President-elect Trump is accusing a federal appeals court of inappropriately deferring to U.S. national security officials about the AI and other risks posed by TikTok’s ownership by a China-based company, in requesting that the Supreme Court delay a statutory deadline that the company divest itself of the social media company by Jan. 19, 2025.
Harvard technologist and security “guru” Bruce Schneier added his voice to a growing chorus of those wary of the military applying artificial intelligence in Intelligence, Surveillance, Targeting and Reconnaissance -- or ISTAR -- systems.
Meaningful regulation of artificial intelligence is needed to reap the many benefits of the technology but is endangered by the influence of corporate monopolists over the policy arena, warns security expert and public-interest technologist Bruce Schneier.
The National Science Foundation has announced $15 million in scholarships for four universities under its cybersecurity scholarship-for-service program, with the goal of developing expertise in “cutting-edge technologies” including artificial intelligence.
Developers and deployers of generative AI models and systems “must invest in comprehensive and risk-based AI and data privacy programs,” according to a “discussion paper” from the Hunton law firm’s Centre for Information Policy Leadership, which contains 14 recommendations on key artificial intelligence roles and responsibilities for companies and regulators.