The White House just released its AI policy guidelines, and the headline is pretty much what you’d expect block state laws that regulate artificial intelligence.
Dozens of states have been stepping up because Congress hasn’t. They’ve passed laws trying to protect workers from being replaced without notice, keep energy costs from spiking, and prevent AI from being used as a national security vulnerability. Real concerns and consequences for real people. Trump’s answer is get out of the way and let the companies do whatever they want.
The guidelines do throw in some language about protecting kids and consumer energy costs but those are window dressing on a document whose core purpose is to clear the field for Big Tech. If you preempt the states and offer nothing binding at the federal level, you’ve just handed corporations a blank check.
This isn’t about innovation. Countries that are actually winning long-term technology races think semiconductors, clean energy, aerospace do it with strategic investment AND guardrails. “No rules” isn’t a competitive advantage. It’s a race to the bottom.
The people who will feel this most aren’t shareholders. They’re workers whose jobs get automated out from under them with no warning, communities absorbing the energy load from massive data centers, and anyone who ends up on the wrong end of an AI-driven decision with no legal recourse.
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