Trump's Pro-Business AI Wishlist

The White House's recommendations for a national AI policy ignore most AI risks and harms and seek to shield AI companies from legal accountability | Edition #282

Illustration from the book “Les Etoiles,” written by Joseph Méry, 1849 (modified)

Hi everyone, Luiza Jarovsky, PhD, here. Welcome to the 282nd edition of my newsletter, trusted by 92,500+ subscribers worldwide.

As the old internet dies, polluted by low-quality AI-generated content, you can always find pioneering, human-made thought leadership here. Thank you for making this newsletter a leading publication in the field.

---

Check out our sponsor: AIUC Global

In the world of AI-assisted work, how your effort is perceived matters. From reports and articles to images and assignments, transparency about AI usage helps you control the narrative, clarify how your work was created, strengthen your credibility, and make your contribution visible. Access the AI Usage Classifications for free today.

---

---

Trump’s Pro-Business AI Wishlist

On Friday, the White House released its much-anticipated legislative recommendations for a national AI policy framework.

This AI policy wishlist is expected to guide Congress’s efforts to draft a federal law and other policies to regulate AI development and deployment in the United States.

With the stated goal of not hindering innovation and supporting America's AI dominance, the White House's recommendations ignore most AI risks and harms and seek to shield AI companies from legal accountability.

-

The White House's AI policy recommendations can only be fully understood in light of two federal documents published last year: the December Executive Order on a National AI Policy and the America's AI Action Plan, published last July.

The Executive Order highlighted that Trump's priority would be to ensure a “minimally burdensome national standard,” instead of a patchwork of 50 different regulatory regimes.

It also stated that a national framework for AI must block state laws that, from a federal perspective, hinder AI innovation. As I wrote earlier, that type of statement could lead to broad and potentially unlawful interference with states’ legislative autonomy.

In parallel with that, America's AI Action Plan, in the context of the AI race, stated, “it is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance” in AI.

The AI policy wishlist published on Friday must also be understood as another step towards the two goals above.

Another preliminary remark is that the document was intended to reflect legislative recommendations (the press release even called it a “National AI Legislative Framework”).

However, a closer look shows that it has been designed to reiterate the federal government’s economic and political plan for AI and to urge states to follow suit.

-

Now, let's take a look at the seven specific targets of the White House's AI policy wishlist, focusing on what they prioritize and what they leave out:

1. Protecting children and empowering parents

“AI services and platforms must take measures to protect children, while empowering parents to control their children’s digital environment and upbringing.”

One of the few areas where concern about AI harms is explicitly stated is child protection.

The recommendations go beyond what is currently established by the EU AI Act, for example, and urge Congress to ensure it does not preempt states from enforcing child protection laws.

The White House explicitly mentions the prevention of deepfake abuse, sexual exploitation, and privacy violations.

Other protective measures targeting children, such as those under consideration in China for anthropomorphic AI systems, were not mentioned.

A reminder that, to date, most cases of AI chatbot-related suicides have involved minors, such as the Adam Raine case. Children and teenagers seem to be among the groups most vulnerable to AI-powered emotional manipulation.

In this context, the recommendations refrain from mentioning built-in limits and guardrails and instead favor empowering parents with tools to help them reduce child-specific risks.

2. Safeguarding and strengthening American communities

“AI development, including data infrastructure buildout, should strengthen American communities and small businesses through economic growth and energy dominance, while ensuring communities are protected from harmful impacts.”

Under this item, which specifically mentions “safeguarding communities,” one would expect strong, straightforward legislative recommendations to help reduce AI-related risks and prevent AI harms.

A reminder that providers of AI models and systems in the United States currently have very few federal-level obligations, and most are sector-specific.

This regulatory Wild West allows negligent and exploitative AI providers, as well as anyone planning to use AI to circumvent the law or harm others, to proceed without fear of repercussions.

Despite the clear need for federal regulation to prevent AI harms, of the five recommended actions in this section, only one refers to preventing harm, and it is framed in the narrowest way possible: