As Republicans push back on Donald Trump’s plan to reserve artificial intelligence regulation for the federal government, the president’s AI czar addressed several concerns.
AI czar David Sacks attempted to allay the worries of state politicians, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who expressed concerns that they will not be able to protect their citizens and free speech sufficiently without regulatory power. Sacks argued that this is no “AI moratorium” but rather an attempt to standardize America’s approach to AI based on the Constitution’s commerce clause, which grants the federal government power to regulate interstate commerce.
Sacks began his Monday X post, “When an AI model is developed in state A, trained in state B, inferenced in state C, and delivered over the internet through national telecommunications infrastructure, that is clearly interstate commerce, and exactly the type of economic activity that the Framers of the Constitution intended to reserve for the federal government to regulate.”
He posited further that the states could create “a patchwork of 50 different regulatory regimes, often in contradiction with each other. Indeed, this is already happening.” He explained that over a thousand state bills have already been proposed related to regulating artificial intelligence. California, Colorado and Illinois are already attempting to penalize AI for alleged “algorithmic discrimination,” or supposedly targeting a certain protected group.
“This type of ideological meddling is how we ended up with ‘black George Washington,’” Sacks argued, referring to the infamous Google Gemini version that depicted historical figures as ethnically diverse. Sacks insisted, “The attempts of Red States to protect conservatives from bias and discrimination (a worthy goal) will have limited effectiveness when Blue States like California have the most market power and nexus to AI development.” [Emphasis added.]
Sacks made the case that only a federal framework could ensure that AI is not biased. He acknowledged, however, that states will still be able to regulate for child safety and local AI infrastructure. Copyright law, as it relates to AI, will remain in federal jurisdiction, Sacks noted, insisting that the federal government could more effectively prevent censorship than states.
Like Trump, Sacks is most concerned with competitiveness and whether China will move ahead in the AI race if the federal government in America does not boost AI. “If we want America to win the AI race, a confusing patchwork of regulation will not work,” Sacks concluded. Trump is expected to sign an executive order on AI this week.
Multiple states, notably Texas and Florida, have passed laws protecting free speech online and aim to do so again with AI. Some state concerns also stem from the possibility of a future Democrat administration that could take the standardized federal AI regulation and weaponize it.
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