With the U.S. Congress once again in session, the FGS AI Policy Newsletter is back. You’ll find below a summary of events since our last newsletter in early August, as well as a few highlights from Europe.
Nine Federal AI Bills On the Move: On Wednesday September 11, the House Science Committee passed nine AI bills including H.R. 5077 the CREATE AI Act, H.R. 9466 the AI Development Practices Act, H.R. 9497 the AI Advancement and Reliability Act, and H.R. 9211 the LIFT AI Act. The bills, which cover issues from Artificial Intelligence literacy in K-12 education, to continuing American leadership in development, research, and other components of AI, were all approved on a bipartisan basis. Exact next steps are unclear, but their bipartisan support does position them for further action at some point. A full list of the nine bills can be found here.
California’s Sweeping AI Proposal: On August 28, the California Assembly passed an amended version of SB 1047 that aims to prevent “critical harms” by ensuring that AI developers implement appropriate safety protocols. If signed into law, the bill would be the most far-reaching proposal to regulate AI enacted at the state or federal level and could set a national standard for regulating the technology. However, despite changes to weaken the liability for companies and remove a proposal for a new state agency dedicated to AI safety, several members of Congress, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and some prominent tech industry figures have criticized the bill, arguing it would stifle innovation and harm AI’s development. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has until September 30 to sign the bill into law and has not yet indicated his thinking.
Additionally, several other targeted pieces of AI legislation passed the California assembly this session and are awaiting Governor Newsom’s signature, including legislation to provide the public with AI detection tools, and create stronger protections for children.
AI leaders visit White House to discuss AI’s energy use: On September 12, several top technology executives met with senior government officials at the White House to discuss the energy resources and infrastructure needed to power AI. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and White House climate officials are among the U.S. officials who met with the executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google CIO Ruth Porat and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. The meeting comes as the rapid development of advanced AI tools has led to concerns over how to meet the significant demand for electricity required to power the technology. Following the meeting, the White House announced multiple actions that the Administration will take on AI policy including the formation of the Task Force on AI Datacenter Infrastructure.
Download the full newsletter here.