A new draft Federal Executive Order released yesterday says: Maybe.
While the EU is busy putting the brakes on their EU AI Act due to being potentially too onerous and chilling innovation, the White House considers doing the same, for US State AI laws.
- The new EO highlights that it is the policy of the US to be a world leader in AI and regards overly burdensome, inconsistent, regulation by the 50 states as counter productive to this goal.
- The EO uses the “stick” of potential withholding of Federal BEAD funds from states with such laws.
- Unlike the AI Moratorium in the Big Beautiful Bill (that failed), the EO takes a more strategic and learning-based approach. It forms a task force, that will assess State AI laws, and make a list of such laws that are considered to violate Federal policy. The funding ban will only apply to those.
- The EO orders the Director of AI and Crypto to prepare a draft preemptive Federal AI law that will set one standard for US AI regulation.
- The EO also instructs the FCC to assess whether to form a Federal reporting standard for AI models that preempts conflicting state laws, and FTC to use their authority to address state laws that regulate AI model outputs in violation of the prohibition on unfair and deceptive acts or practices.
It remains to be seen whether the draft changes before becoming official, how imminent a Federal bill is, and what this means for US State AI laws or privacy laws regulating AI.