WASHINGTON (TNND) -- The Trump administration is trying to persuade lawmakers against implementing regulations on artificial intelligence as it tries to supercharge its development in a push it hopes will supercharge America's economy and maintain an advantage in a race against China to dominate the industry.
Michael Krastios, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, testified to lawmakers on Wednesday on the Trump administration's plans to keep the U.S. as the world leader in the development of AI. Trump signed a series of executive orders earlier this year as part of an "AI Action Plan" to speed its advancement.
The plan included three pillars -- accelerating innovation, building out infrastructure to support the industry and making American hardware and software for AI the standard for the world.
"We are approaching AI not with fear, but with responsible boldness, supporting and encouraging the best innovative work of private industry and America's universities," Krastios told lawmakers.
Lawmakers and the tech industry have been divided at times on how AI should be regulated over concerns on how to strike a balance between safety and nurturing the industry's growth.
The Trump administration has taken a significantly more hands-off approach to AI regulation and made cutting federal rules and other red tape a priority in its action plan.
"We have to grow that baby and let that baby thrive. We can't stop it. We can't stop it with politics, we can't stop it with foolish rules," Trump said during the July announcement.
The congressional push to install guardrails for AI lost its momentum this year as it has gained popularity and the industry has changed its tune on the need for regulations to ensure its safe development. Industry leaders have also shifted resources away from working with lawmakers to craft guardrails to fighting against regulations at the state and federal levels.
It comes as tech companies have poured billions into developing their own AI products in a shift that the industry sees as the key to the future of America's economy and that lawmakers see as a national security imperative with Beijing also trying to become the global leader in its development. The Trump administration has also announced tens of billions in private investments from tech companies and in energy development to power the industry moving forward.
Republicans tried earlier this year to pass a 10-year moratorium on state laws regulating AI as a provision in their tax cut and spending package. The provision was ultimately stripped out of the bill but remains a debate in Washington as lawmakers debate whether to enact new guardrails for AI.
Without action from Congress, states have been left to make their own rules to address some of the concerns that come with the proliferation of AI like data privacy and its potential harms to teens. The end result is a patchwork of rules that vary from state to state, which critics say makes a more challenging regulatory environment for companies to work around.
Kratsios said the administration is adamantly opposed to allowing the current regulatory system to keep going.
"A patchwork of state regulations is anti-innovation. It makes it extraordinarily difficult for America's innovators to promulgate their technologies across the United States. It actually presents and gives more power to large technology companies that have armies of lawyers that are able to sort of meet the various state-level regulations," Kratsios said.
Proponents of a federal AI framework argued that the states jumping into action should spur Congress into passing more comprehensive legislation.
"Some of this action should inspire us to take a closer look by us, I mean Congress, to what do we need in a comprehensive national AI law," said Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, proposed a bill creating a "regulatory sandbox" for AI developers to apply for waivers or modifications to existing federal rules that he argues hold companies back. His proposal aims to give companies a chance to identify regulations obstructing efforts to create innovative technologies and give them a secure testing area for software.
"A regulatory sandbox is not a free pass," Cruz said during the hearing. "People creating or using AI still have to follow the same laws as everyone else. Our laws are adapting to this new technology."
Even with the concerns about preserving innovation, there is still some momentum for enacting data privacy standards and protection for children using AI products.
Meta has been in the spotlight in recent weeks over its standards for AI chatbots after reports of an internal policy document that included examples of acceptable conversations between its chatbot and children "that are romantic or sensual." OpenAI and Character.AI are also facing scrutiny amid lawsuits from parents after teenagers died by suicide after forming relationships with their chatbots.
Lawmakers have vowed congressional investigations into Meta and called for putting requirements in place for companies to protect children and their data, though no proposals have gained enough support to pass either chamber so far.