Susana Schwartz
March 11 deadline hits for Dept. of Commerce
The March 11 deadline has arrived – the critical “action date” for federal agencies like the Department of Commerce (DOC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to implement core directives under Executive Order 14365, “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence.” The EO was signed after a wave of state-level AI regulations were passed to address AI-related harms like bias, deepfakes, chatbot disclosures, automated decision-making, and dubious bot-related hiring practices. Now, 90 days after the EO was passed, the Commerce Dept. must deliver a list of states whose AI law are “onerous,” in that they conflict with the administration’s policy to achieve “global AI dominance through a minimally burdensome national policy framework for AI.” The goal is to bring the “patchwork” of 50 different state regulatory regimes into a single, minimally burdensome federal standard. The EO’s attempt at “preemption by executive action” has come under legal scrutiny for trying to force a shift in the balance of federal and state lawmaking – first by identifying the states against which the Trump administration will seek litigation, and second by attempting to make funding for certain federal programs conditional on alignment with federal AI policies. Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess, but expect a flurry of lawsuits and a cloud of uncertainty for targeted states and AI-related entities in those states when it comes to protecting the public against AI-related harms and navigating a complex regulatory environment.
Susana Schwartz
Technology Editor
RCRTech
AI Infrastructure Top Stories
Trump’s March 11 deadline is here: President Trump’s Executive Order titled “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” requires the DOC and FTC report today on “burdensome” state AI laws that conflict with federal policy.
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