White House meets with tech companies and kids’ safety groups to get support over a package that would include a AI state law ban, and kids safety bills like Kosa
Separate meetings this week with children's advocates and the tech industry came just days after a bipartisan House proposal on AI got a chi
“The White House met this week with tech companies and kids’ safety groups to try to shore up support for a package of bills that could ultimately preempt some state laws on artificial intelligence, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.”
“The effort is moving in tandem with a push by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) to pass a clutch of kids’ safety and AI bills.”
The Monday meeting represents the latests action to block or replace state AI laws
“after several failed attempts by the Trump administration and congressional leadership.
And it comes less than a week after a separate, bipartisan preemption draft from Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) got a tepid reception in Washington.”
“Still unresolved is whether the White House would seek to block a wide swath of state AI rules — a goal the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have aggressively pursued since last year
or would focus on preempting state action on narrow issues such as verifying social media users’ ages.”
Jon Schweppe, a senior adviser at the conservative American Principles Project and an attendee at one of the White House meetings has said
(We also want to point out that Jon is a massive fan of age verification, even saying that if this package doesn’t go through, age verification will lose)
“The White House wants to get a deal done, and obviously preemption is an important priority for them that they’ve had since day one,”
“They understand that a robust kid safety package is how you get to preemption, so they’re just trying to piece together something that they think could actually get 60 votes,” Schweppe added.
Many kids safety groups want the guard act, a bill that would regulate AI chatbots in a bid to protect kids.
“The people said the White House gauged the advocates’ willingness to support a package that includes Blackburn’s Kids Online Safety Act and the App Store Accountability Act by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah)”
“And others fear that the Trump administration plans to use the kids’ safety package as leverage to preempt a broader set of state AI rules.”
one conservative kids’ safety advocate has said
“Federal preemption is a normal part of our constitutional order, but it’s not normal to trade a kids’ safety bill — or series of kids’ safety bills — for anything broader than that, What we don’t want to do is make a trade on preemption that is going to block some future action that we need on the state level,”
According to five people who are familiar with these talks
Top White House officials meet with representatives from four kids safety groups to sell this new package
“The officials included Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Ryan Baasch, deputy director of the National Economic Council; and representatives from the offices of chief of staff Susie Wiles and first lady Melania Trump.”
“In addition to Schweppe’s American Principles Project, the people said representatives from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network and the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center were also present.”
(Also, the NCOSE has voiced their concerns over the KIDS act, which has caused Jon to talk about how it’s a tactical error, basically saying the package being their last shot for age verification. This just means some things are a bit rocky with support)
also meet with tech companies
“White House officials also met Monday with top tech companies to gauge their interest in pairing a kids’ safety package with a new preemption push, according to three people familiar with the meetings who were granted anonymity to freely discuss the talks. Representatives from Apple, Meta, Google and xAI attended the meeting, one of the people said.”
Nothing was agreed and was purely out of wanting feedback back
“Getting all the companies on the same page will be a challenge: Apple and Google have both opposed the App Store Accountability Act, while Meta has aggressively supported it at both the state and federal levels.
All the companies, however, have expressed an interest in preempting state laws around AI and other technologies, preferring a single set of federal rules over a patchwork of state laws they say slows innovation.”
https://fxtwitter.com/jonschweppe/status/2065146254456197541?s=46&t=D9wiDvG8fNalx6yOSgnTqw
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