AI Policy in 2025: Federal and State Developments with Sen. Maroney & Neil Chilson

Federal AI Policy Shifts in 2025

• 🏛️ The Trump administration marked a significant shift, moving from a focus on frontier AI safety oversight to accelerating technology and deregulation.
• 📜 Early actions included the repeal of Biden-era executive orders and the announcement of "Project Stargate," signaling a new approach to AI investment and policy.
• 🌐 The launch of Deepseek's powerful open-source model by a Chinese company spurred discussions on policy implications and US leadership.
• 🗣️ JD Vance's speech in Paris emphasized the US need to lead in AI through a deregulatory approach focused on innovation and investment.
• 💡 The narrative shifted from a primary focus on AI safety to a more traditional innovation versus regulation debate.

Congressional Inaction and State-Level Activity

• 📉 Congress held numerous hearings but largely deferred action on comprehensive AI regulation, citing uncertainty about specific problems and the appropriate federal framework.
• ⚖️ The "Take It Down Act" was a notable but narrow piece of federal legislation addressing a specific AI-related harm.
• 🌐 States, however, were highly active, passing legislation on topics like chatbot regulation, automated decision-making, and data privacy.
• 🏛️ The federal government, through an executive order, aimed to create incentives for states to avoid creating additional AI regulatory structures, signaling a preference for a national framework.

The "More American AI" Doctrine

• 🚀 The Trump administration's AI doctrine can be summarized as "More American AI," emphasizing increased speed and reduced regulation.
• 🔬 This approach supports AI for science initiatives (Project Genesis) and aims to streamline data center development, contrasting with previous administrations' focus on safety.
• 📈 The administration views AI as a normal, powerful technology with immense promise, rather than an existential threat requiring slow, cautious development.
• 🌍 Export controls and preemption efforts are tactics within this doctrine, though their long-term effectiveness is debated.

State-Level AI Regulation Landscape

• 🤖 States passed numerous bills, including the Texas Responsible AI Act (TRAA), Utah's chatbot legislation, and laws in California and New York concerning chatbots and automated decision-making.
• ⚖️ Key themes at the state level included transparency, pricing disclosures, and regulations for automated decision-making technologies.
• 💡 While many state efforts focus on mitigating AI harms, there's a growing, though less publicized, focus on incentivizing AI adoption and innovation through initiatives like AI academies and offices of innovation.
• 🧩 States are exploring various approaches, from regulatory sandboxes in Texas and Delaware to specific industry regulations in healthcare, insurance, and finance.

Political Dynamics and Future Outlook

• 🤝 AI policy is largely seen as a bipartisan issue, with differing approaches but shared goals, often framed as offense (pro-innovation) versus defense (transparency and safety).
• ⚠️ Concerns exist about AI becoming more polarized, potentially aligning with partisan divides, though currently, consensus exists on some issues and skepticism on others.
• 🔮 Predictions for 2026 include the failure of federal preemption efforts, continued state-level regulation with a focus on chatbots and industry-specific rules, and the merging of data center build-out with environmental and local construction issues.