Excerpted from an IAPP Blog my Caitlin Andrews
The White House released its vision for artificial intelligence policy on July 23 with a heavy focus on breaking down barriers to the technology’s innovation and adoption, including another attempt to stop states from enacting their own AI regulation.
The 28-page “America’s AI Action Plan” stems from President Donald Trump’s January executive order on AI and is part of a marked tone shift toward policy aimed at fostering U.S. AI dominance in the face of fierce competition from China. Trump directed agencies to come up with a plan after extensive public comment from academia, civil society and industry. Additional executive orders putting some of the plan’s points into action are expected, Reuters reports.
Key features of the plan include leveraging federal agencies to develop new standards and reimagine some existing ones, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s AI Risk Management Framework. It includes direction to revisit current regulations to see if any pose a hinderance to AI development and a focus on protecting free speech and fairness in large language models.
“This plan galvanizes Federal efforts to turbocharge our innovation capacity, build cutting-edge infrastructure, and lead globally, ensuring that American workers and families thrive in the AI era. We are moving with urgency to make this vision a reality,” said White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios in a press release on the plan.
Removing regulatory barriers
The first pillar of the plan is aimed at fostering AI innovation through speeding up adoption, investing in worker training and removing red tape while protecting free speech, according to the plan.
It directs the Office of Management and Budget to work with federal agencies with AI-related discretionary funding to consider a state’s regulatory landscape when deciding whether to award money. It also recommends the Federal Communication Commission evaluate “whether state AI regulations interfere with the agency’s ability to carry out its obligations and authorities under the Communications Act of 1934.5”
The plan also calls on the Federal Trade Commission to review investigations from previous administrations “to ensure that they do not advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation” as well as “all FTC final orders, consent decrees, and injunctions, and where appropriate, seek to modify or set-aside that unduly burden AI innovation.”
Both provisions are aimed at limiting states’ willingness to regulate AI, an argument promoted by technology companies that do not want to see a patchwork of different laws to comply with.
The Trump administration tried to restrict states’ ability to do so during the recessions bill fight this summer through a 10-year moratorium on legislation in the reconciliation bill; this was ultimately defeated in the U.S. Senate. The plan would have tied states’ broadband funding to following the law, but it was eventually removed after advocates for states’ rights, AI and children’s online safety argued consumers would be disproportionately harmed by the provision.
“AI is far too important to smother in bureaucracy at this early stage, whether at the state or Federal level,” the plan reads. “The Federal government should not allow AI-related Federal funding to be directed toward states with burdensome AI regulations that waste these funds, but should also not interfere with states’ rights to pass prudent laws that are not unduly restrictive to innovation.”
The plan also calls for a revision to federal procurement standards, arguing any AI that does business with the government must reflect “truth rather than social engineering agendas.” It directs NIST to revise its management framework to remove references to misinformation, diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as climate change.
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