Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The new white house Policy framework To regulate obstetrics artificial intelligencereleased Friday, covers many areas, but one thing is clear: President Donald Trump wants the federal government to set the rules. These rules appear to fall short of what privacy advocates and consumers say is necessary.
The generative AI revolution has been underway for years, and US legislation is slow to catch up. This is despite growing awareness of the harms and challenges of AI: the serious effects of chatbots on mental health and child development, the widespread legal controversy over copyright protection, and the dangerous spread of deepfakes and AI-driven scams, to name a few.
Senator Marsha Blackburn foot The new policy package, called the Trump America Artificial Intelligence Act, is due in Congress on Thursday. Tennessee Republicans’ bill is an attempt to codify a vision based on… Trump’s 2025 AI action plangoing into more legal detail and providing guidance on implementing new laws (or changing existing laws).
Trump asserted that the federal government should be responsible for regulating the AI industry — and that requiring AI companies to comply with fifty different sets of state laws would prevent the United States from “winning” the global AI race. However, a proposal to temporarily bar states from regulating AI failed last July They were removed at the last minute From the massive budget bill, known as the “Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Now, the White House is doubling down on its claim that it is in charge, with a few exceptions. The plan addresses some of the biggest concerns people have about AI: Loss of job, Copyright chaos for creators, Rapidly expanding infrastructure such as data centers and Protecting vulnerable groups such as children. But critics say it’s not enough to regulate the fast-growing AI industry.
“It is light on protection and heavy on promoting dangerous AI systems,” Alan Butler, president and CEO of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said in a statement. “The American people deserve better, and Congress must do better than this.”
New AI laws proposed by the White House
The White House’s 2026 AI proposal states that Congress should not create a new governing body to oversee AI rules, but should allow existing agencies and subject matter experts to regulate as they see fit.
Child protection: This is one area where the federal government will not prevent states from passing laws. And many state governments are already leading the charge, especially in regulating romantic or companion chatbots.
The plan highlights protecting children from AI-powered deepfakes, a major issue that has been highlighted Artificial intelligence creates child sexual abuse material. Protecting young people from the ill effects of AI is an ongoing battle Several notable issues Of teens using artificial intelligence to self-harm and commit suicide.
Blackburn’s policy plan includes general language regarding children’s online safety. In theory, existing bills, such as the Children’s Internet Safety Act and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule, are designed to protect children, but advocates and technology experts say they could create Chilling effect on freedom of expression and Leads to censorship.
Although Trump’s AI framework addresses oversight, it is limited to preventing AI companies from including ideological or partisan bias in their products. Trump has previously criticized what he called “woke” AI, a term the president and his allies have used to attack concepts such as diversity, equality and inclusion.
Job loss: It’s not just translators and data entry people who are worried about losing their jobs to AI, older tech workers like programmers and engineers are worried too. There have been a lot of concerns about the impact of AI on the workforce, with retail giants like Amazon – Laying off thousands of employees In the name of the efficiency of artificial intelligence. The White House says it should use “non-regulatory” approaches to focus on youth development and AI workforce training.
Infrastructure: In line with previous Trump Artificial intelligence business planthe framework calls on states and local governments to simplify the construction and operation of data centers. These facilities have become increasingly controversial with nearby residents Report environmental damage And putting pressure on their existing electrical networks, leading to higher electricity bills.
Many major technology companies recently Agree to foot the bill for any higher electricity costsbut there is no way to implement a voluntary pledge.
Copyright: Whether the use of copyrighted materials in AI training is fair use or whether copyright infringement is one of the biggest legal issues of the AI era. The plan reiterates the administration’s position that AI companies are covered by fair use — meaning they won’t have to seek permission or pay for copyrighted content when creating their models.
But given the ever-increasing number of lawsuits posing the same question to the judiciary, the federal government should allow these cases to proceed. So far, limited cases with Anthropic and Meta have produced narrow victories for tech companies, not authors.
The framework document notes that the federal government could become a partner in future licensing of AI companies, stating that it should “provide the resources necessary to make federal datasets accessible to industry and academia in AI-ready formats for use in training AI models and systems.”
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, the parent company of CNET, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that it infringed Ziff Davis’s copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
Is the White House plan sufficient?
Technology industry groups praised the administration’s proposals, while consumer advocacy groups were skeptical at best.
In a statement In support of the plan, the Consumer Technology Association supported a single set of rules for the entire country.
“AI can and will make us better,” the technology industry trade group said. “We agree that children need special protections, that First Amendment rights are paramount, harmful deepfakes must be regulated, and Congress must not move to prevent AI platforms from relying on fair use protections.”
But according to Samir Jain, vice president for policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, the government’s playbook is full of internal contradictions. While he calls on the federal government to preempt state rules and laws on AI development, he also says the federal government should not undermine state authority.
“The White House’s high-level AI framework contains some sound statements of principles, but its usefulness to lawmakers is limited by its internal contradictions and a failure to address key tensions between different approaches to important topics like children’s online safety,” Jane said. He said in a statement.
Ben Winters, director of artificial intelligence and data privacy at the Consumer Federation of America, said the proposal prioritizes big tech companies over consumers.
“It is encouraging to see some stated desires to protect people from AI-generated scams and misuse of minors’ data, but this is not enough,” Winters said. He said in a statement. “We need to see the money where their mouth is about protection — more money for consumer protection agencies at the federal and state levels. And so far, they’ve done nothing but diminish and obstruct it.”