The White House science and technology chief offered few details about what Congress can expect from the Trump administration’s national artificial intelligence (AI) framework, while also facing scrutiny from lawmakers over the administration’s use of a controversial AI tool.
During a House Science Committee hearing on Wednesday, Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), shared little on what the Trump administration’s national AI framework will include, but did hint that it will leave room for sector-specific regulation.
“We want to create a regulatory environment that provides a level of clarity … for all of our innovators, and the most important part of that is promulgating and working towards a use-case sector-specific approach to AI regulation,” Kratsios told lawmakers. “Creating a one size fits all regulation around AI is not the way that we can best deal with all these new AI technologies.”
That national AI framework will be the result of President Donald Trump’s executive order from last month that directed the U.S. attorney general to challenge state AI laws that don’t align with his administration’s priorities. The order aimed to address a patchwork of state regulations that could hinder innovation, the White House said.
Yet the blanket preemption of most AI laws raised some eyebrows, even from Republicans.
Rep. John Obernolte, R-Calif., suggested that states should still be able to regulate.
“I think what everyone believes is that there should be a federal lane, and that there should be a state lane, and that the federal government needs to go first in defining what is under Article One of the Constitution – interstate commerce – and where those preemptive guardrails are,” Obernolte said.
He added that those guardrails should specify “where regulation is reserved only for regulation at the federal level,” and then leave room for states to implement their own AI laws and “be the laboratories of democracy that they are.”
Meanwhile, panel Democrats slammed the Trump administration’s expansion of its partnership with former White House Special Advisor Elon Musk’s xAI. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., referenced a recent update to Grok that enabled users to alter photos to make women and girls appear naked.
“Nearly half a year has passed since the administration unveiled its AI action plan with … goals that I certainly appreciate and support. Unfortunately, the plan only minimally addresses the risks of AI and even where it does, including with respect to deep fakes, the administration has failed to take meaningful action,” Lofgren said in her opening statements.
In September, the General Services Administration’s OneGov struck a deal with xAI to provide Grok to federal agencies at a discounted rate.
“President Trump is sending American taxpayer dollars to xAI through a deal made in September. Essentially, we’re paying Elon Musk to give perverts access to a child pornography machine,” Lofgren told Kratsios.
While Kratsios suggested that any inappropriate use of Grok by federal employees should result in termination and added that guardrails to protect children must be put in place, Lofgren warned that inaction will have consequences.
“If we do not resolve misuse, we are going to have a serious impediment to the development of AI,” she said.
Trump’s order to preempt state laws allowed states to maintain certain regulations that will keep children safe from AI; it did not include similar exemptions for deepfake-related use.