Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
Artificial intelligence was top of mind this Congress, but lawmakers made few gains, setting up a lengthy to-do list for next year.
Why it matters: The mood on the Hill has gone from a sense of urgency for regulating AI to taking a hands-off approach.
- Companies, meanwhile, are charging ahead, putting increasingly powerful products out into the world.
What they're saying: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer this week said he and House Speaker Mike Johnson had agreed to get AI legislation done before the end of this year, but after the elections Senate Republicans chose to walk away and abandon more than a year of work.
- "Speaker Johnson and I have had productive talks on AI for months, and I am glad to say we are still having those talks, with the hope of finding opportunities for action in the future," Schumer said on the Senate floor.
Flashback: Schumer in May released a bipartisan roadmap for regulation following a series of educational forums.
- The approach was in line with the House, seeking to pass individual bills rather than an all-encompassing package, with topics like AI and elections considered particularly time sensitive.
- Funding would be crucial, senators said, with a goal to appropriate $32 billion a year for non-defense AI work as soon as possible.
- The report set the stage for committees to get to work on marking up bills, but it was a struggle for Senate Commerce, which had to reschedule a markup several times.
Sen. Ted Cruz, the incoming Commerce chair, has objected to several AI measures that lawmakers had hoped to include in must-pass legislation but could not because of a few Senate Republican hold-outs, including Cruz.
- The bills, like the Future of AI Innovation Act to authorize NIST's U.S. AI Safety Institute, are broadly bipartisan and backed by industry. But Cruz says that he views them as an extension of the Biden administration and Democrats' regulatory approach.
- During a markup, for example, Cruz raised an amendment that would strike and replace that legislation with a 10-year moratorium on Biden's AI executive order, AI Bill of Rights or anything similar.
- The amendment did not have the support of any other senator.
What's next: Sen. Todd Young, who co-sponsored the Future of AI Innovation Act with Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, said he plans to re-introduce the bill next year.
- "And I'm happy to call it something else and edit the legislation if necessary to accommodate the needs or concerns of anyone. But basically, something very close to what myself and Sen. Cantwell have introduced is going to be needed," Young said.
- "Since landing on this essential policy solution, there has never been a person that has offered a substantive objection to it," Young added.
The VET Act also cleared Commerce but is unlikely to advance this year.
- "We will absolutely reintroduce next year if it doesn't pass this year and will work with our co-lead Senator Capito to give it the best chance to pass," a spokesperson for Sen. John Hickenlooper said in a statement about the AI auditing bill.
- "We're always happy to consider good-faith concerns and requests for changes, indeed we've already made minor changes to address concerns."
- Sen. Ben Ray Luján will also reintroduce the TEST AI Act, spokesperson Adán Serna said.
In the House, the bipartisan AI working group report was circulated among members this week and the task force has met to finalize the report.
- The report is expected to be released next week.
- It includes a section on civil rights but no bills are mentioned, a source familiar said.
- Rep. Anna Eshoo told Axios that the CREATE AI Act, which would authorize the National AI Research Resource, is mentioned throughout.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said this week that Republican House leaders are committed to moving the DEFIANCE Act.
- The legislation would crack down on non-consensual AI pornography and create a federal civil right of action for people who are victims of intimate digital forgeries.
- If the bill doesn't advance this year, Ocasio-Cortez noted that it passed by unanimous consent in the Senate and could be raised again next year by a Republican co-sponsor.
The big picture: Lawmakers had high hopes of passing AI policy this Congress and finally getting in the game of helping to set global standards around the technology. That didn't pan out.
- President-elect Trump's administration will be laser-focused on AI and emerging tech under the influence of Elon Musk and the new AI czar David Sacks, further shaking up the legislative landscape.
