It’s been a high tension week! We have been white-knuckled and on the edge of our seats, wondering if President Trump will sign an Executive Order that penalizes states for regulating artificial intelligence. NCOSE vehemently opposed the idea of such an Executive Order, as it would enable serious and even lethal harm to children. Kids are already dying from A.I. technology; barring states from acting to protect their constituents would only make matters worse.
Now, President Trump has indeed signed an Executive Order on A.I. … but is it the one we feared?
The answer is not simple! Read on for a full legal analysis from the NCOSE Law Center.
The Executive Order is a Big Threat … But We Can Still Deflect it
The truth is that President Trump’s Executive Order could be just as disastrous as we feared. But there is still opportunity to influence what comes next, and mitigate or deflect the threat.
The Executive Order requires the Department of Justice to create a litigation task force to sue states with laws that are judged to be “overly burdensome” on the A.I. industry. It also instructs agencies to withhold funding from states with such laws. But it is not clear yet what “overly burdensome” will mean.
The Secretary of Commerce is tasked with evaluating which laws are or aren’t “overly burdensome,” so everything will depend on how the Secretary of Commerce and the litigation task force interpret these words. Which means it is imperative that child safety advocates get in the ring to influence that interpretation.
It is good news that this Executive Order does not broadly penalize all state laws on A.I., which is what we initially feared. Yet if we don’t act now, that could still happen. Much like court interpretations of Section 230 were expanded to grant Big Tech virtually limitless immunity from liability, interpretations of this “overly burdensome” clause could be so broad as to sweep in all or most A.I. regulations. Certainly, that is what the Big Tech lobbyists will try to make happen! And, because the Secretary of Commerce is required to consult with the A.I. gurus, but not required to consult with online safety advocates, this is a serious danger. We must ensure that our voices are heard as well.
ACTION: Tell the DOJ and Secretary of Commerce that Child Safety Laws are NOT Overly Burdensome!
Please find a pre-drafted email template here, which you can use to email the Department of Justice through this contact form. For the field “Please choose the general topic of your message,” select “Messages to the Attorney General.” You can also use the email template as talking points to call the Department of Justice at 202-353-1555.
To reach the Secretary of Commerce, please print and sign this letter, then mail to:
ATTN: Secretary of Commerce
U.S. Department of Commerce
1401 Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20230
Wait … Doesn’t the Executive Order Already Include a Carveout for Child Safety?
At this point, some of you may be confused if you have heard that the Executive Order already includes a carveout ensuring state laws on child safety won’t be affected. This narrative is circulating, but it is not the full truth.
The carveout on child safety only applies to section 8, which orders the preparation of legislative recommendations. It does not apply to any of the other tenets of the Executive Order, such as the litigation task force or the withholding of funds from states with overly burdensome laws on AI. In other words, if a child safety law is deemed by the task force or the Secretary of Commerce to be “overly burdensome,” states with those laws could be sued and lose potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. That is a serious disincentive.
Further, the carveout in section 8 does not mean Congress CAN’T pass legislation banning state laws on A.I. It simply means that the Executive Order doesn’t specifically recommend they do so. But Congress is already considering doing this of their own volition.
Just this week, the House advanced 11 bills that would pre-empt not only state A.I. laws, but potentially all state laws relating to child online safety. “Pre-empt” means that states couldn’t pass new laws, and even existing laws could be erased. Considering Congress has not passed a single federal law on child online safety in 25 years, and all new laws have been at the state-level, this essentially means we would be erasing 25 years of progress.
These 11 bills must be stopped! TAKE ACTION below.
