Not long ago, artificial intelligence executives were asking Congress for more regulation. The House of Representatives budget bill passed last week demonstrates how quickly the industry has changed course.

Inside the House bill is a moratorium on the sort of state-level AI regulations that have addressed political “deepfakes” and using AI to deny medical claims. At the same time the House bill cuts Medicare, it would funnel more money to tech companies to develop kamikaze drones.

For proponents of AI regulation, the House bill is the culmination of a shift in the industry’s mindset. Rather than paying lip service to popular concerns about AI, the industry has decided to partner with the Trump administration on its goal of “global AI dominance.”

“The message is clear. The House Republican proposal is stealing from poor people to give huge handouts to Big Tech to build technology that is going to perpetuate the president’s authoritarian plans and crackdowns against vulnerable people,” said Kevin De Liban, the founder of TechTonic Justice, a nonprofit aimed at preventing tech from harming low-income people.

Banning Regulation

The splashiest measure in the House bill may also be one of the least likely provisions to make it into law. States would be banned from drafting their own AI regulations for the next 10 years.

At a recent House hearing, Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., said the provision was motivated in part by frustration over Congress’s failure to pass nationwide regulation. The growing patchwork of state regulations presents a challenge for small startups, he said at a recent House hearing.

“The people who can’t deal with that are two innovators in a garage trying to start the next OpenAI, the next Google. Those are the people we’re trying to protect,” he said. “I would love this to be months, not years. But I think it’s important to send the message that everyone needs to be motivated to come to the table here.”

The patchwork is hardly as daunting as Obernolte claims it is, argued Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, a think tank that opposes commercial surveillance. The most sweeping state legislation that has actually passed — in California and Colorado — mostly addresses transparency about when AI is being used, she said. Laws in other states are designed to go after the worst-of-the-worst actors in the developing field, Kak said. Those laws target political “deepfakes,” AI “revenge porn,” and the use of AI by........

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