WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The White House said on Friday that Congress should \u201cpreempt state AI laws\u201d that it views as too burdensome, laying out a broad framework for how it wants Congress to address concerns about artificial intelligence without curbing growth or innovation in the sector.
The legislative blueprint outlines a half-dozen guiding principles for lawmakers, focusing on protecting children, preventing electricity costs from surging, respecting intellectual property rights, preventing censorship and educating Americans on using the technology.
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House Republican leaders swiftly endorsed the framework and said they're ready to work \u201cacross the aisle\u201d to pass legislation, but doing so would be a heavy lift, requiring agreement with Democrats in the Senate as public divisions over AI run deep.
The announcement comes as state governments have forged ahead on their own regulations for AI while civil liberties and consumer rights groups lobby for more regulations on the powerful technology. The industry and the White House have pushed back, arguing that a patchwork of rules would hurt growth. Trump signed an executive order in December to block states from crafting their own regulations.
\u201cThis was in response to a growing patchwork of 50 different state regulatory regimes that threaten to stifle innovation and jeopardize America\u2019s lead in the AI race,\u201d said White House AI czar David Sacks in a social media post Friday.
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Sacks said the next step is to work with Congress to turn the administration's principles into federal legislation.
While passing sweeping AI legislation will be difficult, especially in a midterm election year, the framework appeared designed to appeal to some AI-wary Republicans and Democrats with a focus on widespread and bipartisan concerns, such as the harms that AI chatbot companionship can pose to children and the electricity costs of AI infrastructure.
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\u201cIt covers basically all the key sticking points I think that might stop an AI bill from moving through Congress,\u201d said Neil Chilson, a Republican former chief technologist for the Federal Trade Commission who now leads AI policy at the Abundance Institute. \u201cIt reads to me as an attempt to build a larger tent, even if it doesn\u2019t give everybody everything that they want.\u201d
But it has already been panned by some Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, who said in a statement it \u201cfails to address key issues, including strong accountability for AI companies, under the guise of protecting children, communities, and creators. Americans need protection \u2014 but this means nothing if we allow the AI industry to be the Wild West.\u201d
Whether AI legislation can pass both chambers of Congress could also rely heavily on the support of Republicans like U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who has introduced her own AI bill, and last year was instrumental in thwarting Trump's earlier attempt to deter state governments from regulating AI. Blackburn on Friday called Trump's framework a roadmap and welcomed the administration to the \u201cimportant discussion" of getting a bill passed.
Several states \u2014 including California, Colorado, Texas and Utah \u2014 have already passed laws that set some rules for AI across the private sector.
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With bipartisan support in the Texas legislature, a new AI law that took effect this year in the Republican-led state requires government agencies and health care providers to disclose when they are using AI to interact with consumers or answer questions. The law also prohibits the development of AI that encourages a person to commit suicide, harm themselves, harm another person or engage in criminal activity.
A federal law following Trump's framework \u201ccould knock out parts of Texas\u2019s AI code while leaving some parts standing,\u201d said Saurabh Vishnubhakat, a professor at Yeshiva University\u2019s Cardozo School of Law. \u201cThe fact that it\u2019s a Republican governor I don\u2019t think is going to save Texas\u2019 law from preemption.\u201d
Also vulnerable is Colorado\u2019s law, which is aimed at preventing AI from discriminating against people when making consequential decisions about things like hiring and medical care. It was passed in 2024 but won't take effect until later this year.
California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed some AI bills while signing into law others. His office criticized Trump's framework Friday.
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\u201cYet again, Donald Trump is trying to gut laws in California that keep our residents safe and protect consumers \u2014 a core state responsibility,\u201d Newsom\u2019s spokesperson Marissa Saldivar said in a statement.
The Trump administration says it doesn't think Congress should preempt all state regulatory powers over AI, including enforcement of general laws against AI developers, \u201cto protect children, prevent fraud, and protect consumers.\u201d It also says Congress shouldn't interfere with local authorities in deciding where to place data centers and other AI infrastructure, or how states procure their own AI tools for law enforcement or education.
However, it says states \u201cshould not be permitted to regulate AI development,\u201d shouldn't penalize AI developers for a third party's unlawful conduct using their product, and \u201cshould not unduly burden Americans\u2019 use of AI for activity that would be lawful if performed without AI.\u201d
As backlash against data centers has increased along with rising power prices, the White House had previously stepped up pressure on AI companies and the power sector to do more to address the issue — including having AI companies sign voluntary pledges earlier this month to build their own power generation plants.
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Some AI safety advocates are pushing for Blackburn and other influential Republicans to insist on more protections against AI's most catastrophic risks to national security or the economy, such as out-of-control AI agents or the widespread replacement of human workers.
\u201cWe have companies that explicitly are hoping to replace human labor," said Brendan Steinhauser, a former Republican strategist who now leads The Alliance for Secure AI and believes Trump's framework doesn't do enough to address risks. "Tinkering at the edges with upskilling and job training is just not going to make an impact on that. I just don\u2019t think we as a country are taking this seriously enough.\u201d
The framework aims for a more balanced approach to another controversial topic: AI and copyright.
It recommends against wading into the legal fights between artists and creators and the technology companies that have ingested huge amounts of copyrighted works to build AI systems that can generate new text, images and sound.
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The Trump administration \u201cbelieves that training of AI models on copyrighted material does not violate copyright laws,\u201d according to the document, but acknowledges \u201carguments to the contrary exist and therefore supports allowing the Courts to resolve this issue.\u201d
That language was welcomed by trade group AI Progress \u2014 a coalition that includes Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Midjourney and OpenAI.
Tech companies have been fighting dozens of copyright infringement lawsuits from writers and publishers, visual artists, music record labels and others. Judges have largely sided with AI developers in allowing for the \u201cfair use\u201d of copyrighted works to create something new, but some have questioned how the materials were obtained. A federal judge in September approved a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and authors who allege nearly half a million books had been illegally pirated to train its chatbot.
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\u2014
O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. Contributing to this report were AP writers Colleen Slevin in Denver, Tr\u00e2n Nguy\u1ec5n in Sacramento, California, and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas.
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