White House Policy for AI - Buying the status quo
The booming AI lobbying spend delivers excellent results. Take the recent White House Policy Framework for AI. It desperately wants you to Think of the Children. Its actual content is this:
Congress should preempt state AI laws that impose undue burdens to ensure a minimally burdensome national standard consistent with these recommendations, not fifty discordant ones.
Although the Administration believes that training of AI models on copyrighted material does not violate copyright laws, it acknowledges arguments to the contrary exist and therefore supports allowing the Courts to resolve this issue. Similarly, Congress should not take any actions that would impact the judiciary’s resolution of whether training on copyrighted material constitutes fair use.
Congress should consider enabling licensing frameworks or collective rights systems for rights holders to collectively negotiate compensation from AI providers, without incurring antitrust liability. Any such legislation, however, should not address when or whether such licensing is required.
Congress should not create any new federal rulemaking body to regulate AI, and should instead support development and deployment of sector-specific AI applications through existing regulatory bodies with subject matter expertise and through industry-led standards.
Congress should avoid setting ambiguous standards about permissible content, or open-ended liability, that could give rise to excessive litigation.
The status quo is what the AI industry wants, and it is bought and paid for.