Sep 12, 2025 - Technology
The biggest AI policy challenges
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Here are some of the topics that will drive our reporting:
- AI and workers: Elected officials often say they're all about protecting workers and creators. We'll examine what they're doing — or not — to ensure people have the skills they need in a new AI-driven economy and to minimize job losses.
- AI procurement: The government is tech's biggest customer, and President Trump is not shying away from wielding that reality to push his agenda. We'll cover how governments use and buy AI, and how the companies that win big federal contracts set standards and shape the market.
- AI and sensitive data: AI has supercharged the privacy debate as governments around the world use health records, financial information and classified materials for everything from public services to national security. We'll also dig into the ways companies and politicians are looking to take control of harmful deepfakes that are alarming parents.
- States vs. feds on AI regs: Washington is aiming to slow down state-level efforts to regulate AI — who will come out on top?
- The U.S. vs the EU: Europe is always the first to regulate tech, and AI has been no exception. How are the bloc's rules working or backfiring, and what are the lessons learned for the U.S.?
- AI and national security: AKA the bipartisan obsession in the U.S. to beat China, and how it's shaping every element of geopolitics and industrial policy. As the government grapples with controlling chip and advanced tech exports, what's the balance between national security and lucrative deals?
- The world AI creates: From smart cities and public safety to the carbon footprint of data centers, we'll dive into specific case studies examining the world that AI is creating and what governments are doing (or not doing) about it.
- AI and antitrust: Long-entrenched Big Tech players now face stiff competition from AI companies, upending what we thought we knew about platform dominance and reviewing acquisitions.
- Personnel is policy: From tech CEOs to bureaucrats, we'll get to know the people in the spotlight and behind the scenes who are defining policy in the U.S. and around the world.
