Advocating For American Dominance in AI | | |
HOUSE JUDICIARY SUBCOMMITTEE
HEARING ON AI
| "Artificial Intelligence: Examining Trends in Innovation and Competition" | |
- House Judiciary Subcommittee Divides on AI Approach
- OMB Issues Memos on AI Acquisition and Integration for Fed Agencies
- OSTP Director on Trump Admin "Promote & Protect" AI Strategy
- China Reports Quantum Computing AI Breakthrough
- New York Times Copyright Lawsuit vs. OpenAI and MSFT Moves Forward
- House Republican Study Committee Sets Up New Task Force
- Other Bills NAIA Is Tracking on the Hill - TAKE IT DOWN Act passes House Committee; Hearing on Data Centers & Energy; NIST AI workforce action
- China buys $16 Billion in Nvidia H20 Chips
- Member Focus: Follwr - AI Social Media Management
- NAIA's Three Month Anniversary with 500+ Members
- Save the Date of April 22nd @ 4PM EST for a NAIA Online Meet-Up
- Become a NAIA Member Today!
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Democrat and Republican House Judiciary Members Focus on Regulation Overreach and Labor Impact at AI Hearing
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust held a hearing last Wednesday titled "Artificial Intelligence: Examining Trends in Innovation and Competition" which presented interesting insight on the varying Republican and Democrat focus and positions related to artificial intelligence. Four individuals testified (click on name for written testimony):
And below is a snapshot analysis of the themes relayed in the hearing:
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Competitive Landscape and Antitrust: The testimonies underscored a thriving AI competition, with Coniglio and Melugin emphasizing the industry's dynamism and warning against overregulation. Coniglio's critique of flawed frameworks, such as viewing AI as increasing concentration, contrasted with Bedoya's concerns about partnerships like Microsoft-OpenAI potentially limiting startup access, highlighting a tension between fostering innovation and preventing market power abuses.
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Regulatory Overreach and Historical Lessons: Melugin's reference to the EU's regulatory approach, with Europe having no top 10 tech firms by market cap, served as a cautionary tale, reinforcing the need for a consumer welfare-focused antitrust approach. Historical cases like IBM and Microsoft illustrated past regulatory missteps, suggesting a need for caution in current policy.
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Worker Impact and Labor Protections: Bedoya's focus on AI displacing workers, with specific examples like movie actors and call center employees, added a social dimension to the hearing. The mention of collective bargaining solutions, such as SAG-AFTRA's protections, highlighted practical steps to mitigate AI's labor impacts, an aspect not typically emphasized in tech policy discussions.
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Regulatory Actions and Existing Frameworks: Bedoya's rejection of the "unregulated AI" myth, supported by FTC actions like the Rite Aid and Amazon Alexa cases, underscored that existing laws apply, with a call for enforcement rather than new regulations. This contrasts with Chilson, Coniglio and Melugin's call for minimal intervention, illustrating a debate on regulatory scope.
To watch the hearing and interaction between Congressional Members and witnesses
go HERE (complete hearing approx. 2 hours).
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New Office of Management and Budget Memos Related to Acquisition and Integration of AI In Federal Agencies
Last Friday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released two revised policies related to "Federal Agencies Use of AI and Federal Procurement". Click on title to read the Memorandums:
OMB Memorandum M-25-21, Accelerating Federal Use of AI through Innovation, Governance, and Public Trust
PROMOTING RAPID AND RESPONSIBLE AI ADOPTION: M-25-21 gives agencies the
tools necessary to embrace AI innovation, while maintaining strong protections for Americans’ privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. It continues efforts to establish chief AI officers and tasks the OMB Director with creating a CAIO AI Council within the next 90 days. The council will coordinate AI development and use across agencies, ensure compliance with relevant policies, promote shared tools and best practices and will automatically sunset five years after its creation unless extended by the OMB Director. Agencies must update internal policies on IT infrastructure, data, cybersecurity and privacy, as well as creating a generative AI policy, within 270 days
OMB Memorandum M-25-22, Driving Efficient Acquisition of Artificial Intelligence in Government
DRIVING EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT AI ACQUISITION: M-25-22 provides agencies
with concise, effective guidance on how to acquire best-in-class AI quickly, competitively, and responsibly. This memorandum focuses on three items: (1) “pay careful attention to vendor sourcing, data portability and long-term interoperability to avoid significant and costly dependencies on a single vendor.” (2) monitoring AI performance and managing risk, calling for the evaluation and acquisition of AI systems that are “fit for purpose and deliver consistent results" and (3) promotes AI acquisition through cross-functional engagement.
OMB directs the General Services Administration, in coordination with OMB, to draft a plan to assist federal agencies in AI procurement within the next 100 days.
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As Tariffs Rise and China Improves Its' AI Tech, OSTP Director Kratsios Discusses Administration's "Promote & Protect" Strategy
The new White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director, Michael Kratsios was interviewed by Fox Digital on Monday and laid out the Trump Administration's strategy related to AI policy (HERE).
Kratsios criticised the Biden Administration for not having a "balanced approach" to AI policy, fixated on the harms and dangers as compared to the Trump approach on how AI can "transform America".
He also discussed the rapid advancement of Chinese AI innovation citing the release of DeepSeek this year and that the US continues to lead in the "three layers of technology", i.e. high-end chips, AI models and applications.
Kratsios stated that Trump's vision is a new era marked by scientific and technological breakthroughs.
"We want to put an American flag on Mars. We want to fly supersonic again. We want drones to be delivering packages around the world. We want AI to be used by American workers to allow them to do their jobs better, safer and faster," he stated.
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FYI - China's State Council Information Office reported (HERE) that a Chinese quantum computing firm has "completed the large AI model task on a quantum computer with remarkable efficiency, as reported on Monday by Science and Technology Daily. Origin Quantum, a startup based in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei, has successfully fine-tuned a billion-parameter AI model on Origin Wukong, the country's independently developed third-generation superconducting quantum computer. The company has hailed this achievement as a world-first breakthrough."
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New York Times Copyright Lawsuit Against OpenAI and Microsoft Moves Forward
A New York federal judge last Friday rejected OpenAI's and Microsoft's motion to dismiss a lawsuit stating that the Times' "numerous" and "widely publicized" examples of ChatGPT producing material from its articles justified allowing the claims to continue.
Reuters complete story (HERE) on how the Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023, accusing them of using millions of its articles without permission to train the large language model behind its popular chatbot ChatGPT. The case is one of several brought by copyright owners such as authors, visual artists and record labels alleging that tech companies including OpenAI, Microsoft and Meta Platforms used their material without permission to train AI systems.
| | MORE CONGRESSIONAL ACTIONS | | |
House Republican Study Committee Sets Up Task Force on Emerging Technologies
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) announced the launch of a new task force dedicated to addressing the rise of technological advances. The RSC's Emerging Technologies Task Force, led by Chair Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL-3) and Vice Chair Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA-23), will spearhead the Committee's policy initiatives on artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, biotech, and more.
In a statement (HERE), the RSC pronounced "The rise of AI and other emerging technologies presents both unprecedented opportunities and challenges for American manufacturing, national security, and prosperity. The RSC Emerging Technologies Task Force will work in tandem with industry leaders to identify challenges and create lasting solutions."
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Other Capitol Hill Legislation NAIA is Tracking
S. 146 and H.R. 633 - TAKE IT DOWN Act or the "Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes On Websites and Networks Act" is a bill strongly supported by First Lady Melania Trump related to criminal prosecution for intentional disclosure and non-consensual intimate images. The Senate passed the bill and today (April 9) the House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent it to the full House on a vote of 49 to 1. Expectation is t his will soon be signed into law by President Trump.
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs held a hearing on "America’s AI Moonshot: The Economics of AI, Data Centers, and Power Consumption". The hearing focused on exploring the economic implications of artificial intelligence, particularly the infrastructure demands of AI, such as data centers and their associated power consumption. (transcript HERE).
S. 1290 - A bill to expand the functions of the National Institute of Standards and Technology to include workforce frameworks for critical and emerging technologies, to require the Director of NIST to develop an artificial intelligence workforce framework.
Introduced by Senator Gary Peters (D-MI)
Referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
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Chinese Firms Have Placed $16B in Orders for Nvidia’s (NVDA) H20 AI Chips; No New Bans on DeepSeek This Week
It was announced this past week that Chinese tech firms had ordered over $16 Billion in Nvidia H20 AI chips in the first quarter of 2025 (HERE). The H20 is allowed to be shipped to China but Nvidia's Blackwell chip is not allowed to be exported due to national security concerns. The past week's back and forth on tariffs increases the potential conflict over the US and China AI policies.
So far thirteen states have now banned China's DeepSeek from being downloaded to their IT platforms and used by state employees.
The following governmental bodies have banned DeepSeek from being downloaded by employees so far (recently added):
US Dept. of Commerce, NASA, the Navy, the Pentagon, the US Congress,
States of Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Montana, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Oregon, North Carolina, Nevada, New York, Virginia and Texas,
Foreign governments of Denmark, South Korea, Taiwan, Italy and Australia.
Tennessee became the first state to also ban Manus along with DeepSeek.
No hearings scheduled yet on the Senate (S. 765) or House (HR 1121) Bills to ban DeepSeek.
| NAIA Members: Do you have questions or comments on any of the legislation being submitted in Congress? Contact us at Membership@theNAIA.org | | |
NEW MEMBER FOCUS: Start-Up Member - Followr: An AI Social Media Management Tool
Based in Florida, Followr takes the hassle out of social media posting and provides an "all-in-one" solution. The tool assists in creation, planning, scheduling and provides in-depth analytics via the Followr dashboard. Over 300,000 posts have been generated, available 24/7 and client satisfaction is at 95%!
Followr just signed up as a Bronze Start-Up Member and joins the over 500 NAIA Members since we kicked off the organization three months ago on January 7, 2025.
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SAVE THE DATE: April 22nd for the Next NAIA Online Meet Up with AI Policy Leaders
We are working on a Zoom Meet-Up for NAIA Members on Tuesday, April 22nd at 4 PM EST with Congressional Leaders. Invitations are out and watch for the announcement. Thanks!
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Membership dues paid to the National Artificial Intelligence
Association (NAIA - EIN 33-1713769) are 95% tax deductible as an
ordinary and necessary business expense in accordance with
the lobbying provision of the federal 1993 Budget Reconciliation
Act. Contributions to 501(c)(6) organizations are not deductible as charitable contributions on the donor's federal income tax return.The organization must be an association of persons having some common business interest and its purpose must be to promote this common business interest.
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