If Congress bombs the assignment to find another way to pass the measure, Trump will likely release an executive order to enforce the policy. Republicans in Congress had dissuaded Trump from releasing a draft of that order, requesting time to find legislation where they believed an AI moratorium could pass.
“Widespread” movement blocked Trump’s demand
Celebrating the removal of the measure from the NDAA, a bipartisan group that lobbies for AI safety laws, Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI), noted that Republicans didn’t just face pressure from members of their own party.
“The controversial proposal had faced backlash from a nationwide, bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers, parents, faith leaders, unions, whistleblowers, and other public advocates,” an ARI press release said.
This “widespread and powerful” movement “clapped back” at Republicans’ latest “rushed attempt to sneak preemption through Congress,” Brad Carson, ARI’s president, said, because “Americans want safeguards that protect kids, workers, and families, not a rules-free zone for Big Tech.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) called the measure “controversial,” The Hill reported, suggesting that a compromise that the White House is currently working on would potentially preserve some of states’ rights to regulate some areas of AI since “you know, both sides are kind of dug in.”
$150 million war over states’ rights to regulate AI
Perhaps the clearest sign that both sides “are kind of dug in” is a $150 million AI lobbying war that Forbes profiled last month.
ARI is a dominant group on one side of this war, using funding from “safety-focused” and “effective altruism-aligned” donor networks to support state AI laws that ARI expects can be passed much faster than federal regulations to combat emerging risks.
