A Foundation to Build Upon: White House Releases a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence
Last Friday, the White House released a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence (AI). The framework is a natural progression from the current administration’s past executive orders and statements on AI technology, and comes as a welcome respite from the regulatory barrage currently taking place in state legislatures across the country.
The framework should come as no surprise to anyone following the White House’s stance on AI. Soon after his inauguration, President Trump signed an executive order “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.” In the following months, the Administration has expressed support for a free market approach to the technology in order to promote innovation and galvanize American leadership. In December of last year, President Trump signed an executive order to “Ensure a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence” while the First Lady announced the Presidential AI Challenge. Both initiatives stressed the importance of encouraging innovation over restriction in order to prepare the nation, its students, businesses, economy, and security, for the future. The December executive order also commissioned the national policy framework as a remedy to the growing patchwork of state regulations.
The newly released framework contains three pages of legislative recommendations. The brevity stands in stark contrast to the onslaught of state-level AI regulations, of which Bryce Chinault, Director of State Affairs at the Abundance Institute, outlined in a thread on X. From Louisiana to Nebraska, state legislatures are debating bureaucratic frameworks that would impose limits, extreme liability, and preemptive restrictions on the technology.
Within the three-page alternative to overlapping and overreaching state regulation is a call for a national standard that preempts “state AI laws that impose undue burdens to ensure a minimally burdensome national standard consistent with these recommendations, not fifty discordant ones.” The framework is careful to point out that some state laws will not be preempted, out of respect for federalism. For instance, “Congress should ensure that it does not preempt states from enforcing their own generally applicable laws protecting children, such as prohibitions on child sexual abuse material, even where such material is generated by AI.”
The framework is divided into seven sections, demonstrating the White House’s priorities and organizing the most contentious policy issues touched by AI: protecting children and empowering parents; safeguarding and strengthening American communities; respecting intellectual property rights and supporting creators; preventing censorship and protecting free speech; enabling innovation and ensuring American AI dominance; educating Americans and developing an AI-ready workforce; and establishing a federal policy framework preempting cumbersome state AI laws.
The National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence lays a strong and deliberate foundation upon which Congress can build, encouraging a light touch approach, honoring federalism, and offering specific directions to address the most pressing concerns. The impetus now lies with Congress to act on behalf of the people, businesses, and future of America to ensure that AI is leveraged to its full potential instead of being blocked upon arrival.
