What's inside the House draft bill to regulate AI
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A bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a proposal to regulate AI that would override some state laws.
Why it matters: The draft's release is major step in what will be a difficult path forward for a bipartisan AI bill that can pass the House and the Senate.
- The White House has been skeptical of any approach that imposes strict requirements on companies.
Driving the news: Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) rolled out a discussion draft of the Great American Artificial Intelligence Act on Thursday.
- The draft comes days after President Trump signed an executive order on AI safety and cybersecurity.
- Co-sponsors include Reps. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.), Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), Erin Houchin (R-Ind.), and Scott Peters (D-Calif.).
What's inside: The 269-page framework would:
- Preempt state laws on the development of AI models for three years.
- Formally establish the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, tasked with making voluntary standards and guidelines, and appropriate $100 million per year from 2027-2029.
- Require "large frontier developers" to write and implement plans addressing risks prior to releasing new models, as well as to report critical safety incidents to CAISI.
The draft legislation would also protect AI whistleblowers and increase fines for AI-enabled fraud, as well as try to boost funding for AI literacy, education and research.
- It would create a mechanism for the government to study AI's impact on the workforce and add some workforce protections around AI.
- The draft touches on content moderation, cybersecurity, research security and international AI standards.
What they're saying: "AI will shape our economy, workforce, national security, and daily lives for decades, and the framework governing it must be durable enough to survive changes in Congress, administrations, and political priorities," the lawmakers wrote in an op-ed.
- "Rather than allow protections to exist only in a handful of states or force innovators to navigate dozens of different legal regimes, our framework would establish one national standard."
What we're watching: The lawmakers call the draft "the start of a serious national conversation" to get feedback from experts and the public ahead of the bill's formal introduction.
