[HN Gopher] Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence
        
       https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/11/trump-signs-executive-order-...
       https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/trump-signs-executive...
        
       Author : andsoitis
       Score  : 176 points
       Date   : 2025-12-11 23:56 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.whitehouse.gov)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.whitehouse.gov)
        
       | andsoitis wrote:
       | _White House AI czar and Silicon Valley venture capitalist David
       | Sacks elaborated on the rationale for the executive order in a
       | post on X.
       | 
       | Sacks argued that this domain of "interstate commerce" was "the
       | type of economic activity that the Framers of the Constitution
       | intended to reserve for the federal government to regulate."
       | 
       | At the Oval Office signing ceremony, Sacks said, "We have 50
       | states running in 50 different directions. It just doesn't make
       | sense."_
        
         | mcdan wrote:
         | So much for "states rights" and the "laboratories of
         | democracy."
        
           | AndrewKemendo wrote:
           | We had a pretty decisive event eliminating precicely that
           | experiment
        
             | TimorousBestie wrote:
             | Could you be more specific?
        
               | AndrewKemendo wrote:
               | https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-
               | amendment
        
               | schmidtleonard wrote:
               | He probably means the civil war.
               | 
               | I'd like to point out that the South was only a fan of
               | States Rights exactly insofar as they let them do
               | slavery. The millisecond it came to forcing Northern
               | states to return escaped slaves, they suddenly weren't
               | the same principled supporters of devolving and
               | federating power. Funny how that works.
        
               | duskwuff wrote:
               | And just in case it wasn't clear enough already: one of
               | the first acts of the Confederacy was to draft a
               | provisional constitution which explicitly authorized
               | slavery, and which prohibited either Congress or any
               | state from passing laws to the contrary.
        
               | lesuorac wrote:
               | States also weren't allow to leave the Confederacy ...
        
               | TimorousBestie wrote:
               | Yeah, I just wanted them to cut out the coy vagueposting
               | and say out loud how bad they think Reconstruction was.
               | 
               | So in that respect, mission accomplished.
        
         | jandrewrogers wrote:
         | Wickard v Filburn rearing its ugly ahead again.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn
        
           | rubyfan wrote:
           | I'm not a legal scholar but this seems pretty bone headed.
        
             | lesuorac wrote:
             | Which part?
             | 
             | The "The U.S. government had established limits on wheat
             | production, based on the acreage owned by a farmer, to
             | stabilize wheat prices and supplies." seems like quite the
             | federal overreach never mind the court decision.
        
               | rubyfan wrote:
               | Mostly the decision but yeah it's a double whammy of bad
               | policy from congress and probably worse ruling from the
               | court.
        
           | threemux wrote:
           | Many of the ills currently befalling the US can be traced to
           | the New Deal era. Including, of course, an HN favorite: our
           | system of employer-sponsored health insurance.
        
         | CPLX wrote:
         | > Sacks argued that this domain of "interstate commerce" was
         | "the type of economic activity that the Framers of the
         | Constitution intended to reserve for the federal government to
         | regulate."
         | 
         | They did indeed. It's explicitly delegated to congress which
         | declined to pass a law like this.
         | 
         | The EO is just obviously null and void in the face of any
         | relevant state law.
        
       | cebert wrote:
       | I wish this article would include what the details of the
       | framework are. It's unhelpful in its current form.
        
         | dang wrote:
         | We've since changed the URL to link to the order itself, and
         | put links to other articles in the toptext.
        
       | techblueberry wrote:
       | A win for states rights!
        
         | dmix wrote:
         | Just like the last time Trump was president he is far from a
         | traditional conservative regarding small government. People
         | pretend the 2010 tea party is the same thing as Trump as some
         | sort of gotcha, but he's never been that way. He's always been
         | very assertive regarding expanding executive and federal power.
        
           | yks wrote:
           | No one is surprised about that guy, those comments usually
           | point out how "the 2010 tea party", and everyone else from
           | the decades, if not centuries, of the conservative milieu,
           | are suddenly all in on this.
        
             | noitpmeder wrote:
             | The president isnt going to personally enrich himself and
             | his cronies by _divesting_ power from his offce
        
             | dmix wrote:
             | I agree, the main reason is he has been very effective with
             | his cult of personality to get most of the republican
             | congressmen in line. They lose elections if they don't and
             | politicians aren't known for sticking to their values once
             | in power.
             | 
             | The actual small government republican congressmen like
             | https://x.com/justinamash have been very critical of
             | Trump's power grabs but he lost political favor doing so
        
       | treetalker wrote:
       | Federal Preemption: A Legal Primer --
       | https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R45825
        
         | dav- wrote:
         | What does this have to do with executive orders?
        
           | alwa wrote:
           | I imagine it's a nod to the way the stated goal would
           | normally be pursued, but in this case is not.
           | 
           | It sounds like a good idea to establish a uniform national
           | policy! And the federal government can do that (although only
           | for the very specific purposes spelled out in the
           | Constitution). The right way to do that is to pass a law
           | through both houses of Congress, and the president to sign it
           | into law. Maybe the law even specifies a broad framework and
           | authorizes the executive branch to dial in the specific
           | details (although the court seems to be souring on that kind
           | of thing too).
           | 
           | The god-king proclaiming a brand new framework governing a
           | major new sector of the economy To Be So is.. not the normal
           | way
        
           | peterlk wrote:
           | The link is highly relevant to the executive order because
           | this executive order attempts to place limitations on what
           | laws US states can create.
        
             | lesuorac wrote:
             | EOs aren't law though. They're guidance for the rest of the
             | executive branch on how to execute the laws written by
             | congress.
             | 
             | The Legislative branch (Congress) not the Executive branch
             | (White House) can preempt states.
        
               | twisteriffic wrote:
               | I don't know if you've heard, but norms don't matter
               | anymore.
        
               | lesuorac wrote:
               | Can you guys just read stuff before talking?
               | 
               | > The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to create
               | an "AI Litigation Task Force" within 30 days whose "sole
               | responsibility shall be to challenge State AI laws" that
               | clash with the Trump administration's vision for light-
               | touch regulation.
               | 
               | The EO isn't about Federal Preemption. Trump's not
               | creating a law to preempt states. So a question about how
               | Federal Preemption is relevant is on point.
        
               | mullingitover wrote:
               | I think the message between the lines is what's
               | important, and it goes like this:
               | 
               |  _" We in the executive branch have an agreement with the
               | Supreme Court allowing us to bypass congress and enact
               | edicts. We will do this by sending the Justice Department
               | any state law that gets in the way of our donors, sending
               | the layup to our Republican Supreme Court, who will dunk
               | on the States for us and nullify their law."_
               | 
               | We don't have to go through the motions of pretending we
               | still live in a constitutional republic, it's okay to
               | talk frankly about reality as it exists.
        
               | mindslight wrote:
               | It goes deeper than that - the Supreme Council will issue
               | non-binding "guidance" on the "shadow docket", so that
               | when/if the fascists/destructionists [0] lose the
               | Presidency, they can go back to being obstructionists
               | weaponizing high-minded ideals in bad faith. As a
               | libertarian, the way I see it is we can disagree
               | politically on what constitutes constructive solutions,
               | but it's time to unite, stop accepting any of the
               | fascists' nonsense, and take back the fucking government
               | - full support for the one remaining mainstream party
               | that at least nominally represents the interests of the
               | United States, while demanding they themselves stop
               | preemptively appeasing the fascists. The Libertarian,
               | Green, or even new parties can step up as the opposition.
               | Pack the courts with judges that believe in _America_
               | first and foremost, make DC and PR states to mitigate the
               | fascists ' abuse of the Senate, and so on. After we've
               | stopped the hemorrhaging, work on fundamental things like
               | adopting ranked pairs voting instead of this plurality
               | trash.
               | 
               | [0] I'd be willing to call them something else if they
               | picked an honest name for themselves - they are most
               | certainly not "conservatives"
        
               | Ritewut wrote:
               | This is quite literally going to lead to a Supreme Court
               | case about Federal Preemption. Bondi will challenge some
               | CA law, they will lose and appeal until they get to the
               | Supreme Court. I don't have any grace to give people at
               | this point, you have to be willingly turning a blind eye
               | if you do not see where this will end up.
        
               | dmix wrote:
               | Federal preemption requires federal law (aka laws written
               | by congress). How else would it get to the supreme court?
               | 
               | The EO mentions congress passing new law a few times in
               | addition to an executive task force to look into
               | challenging state laws based on constitutional violations
               | or federal statues. That's the only way they'd get in
               | front of a judge.
               | 
               | If the plan is for the executive to invent new laws it's
               | not mapped out in this EO
        
               | treetalker wrote:
               | > Federal preemption requires federal law (aka laws
               | written by congress). How else would it get to the
               | supreme court?
               | 
               | 1. No federal preemption currently. (No federal law,
               | therefore no regulation on the matter that should
               | preempt.)
               | 
               | 2. State passes and enforces law regarding AI.
               | 
               | 3. Trump directs Bondi to challenge the state law on
               | nonsense grounds.
               | 
               | 4. In the lawsuit, the state points out that there is no
               | federal preemption; oh yeah, 10th Amendment; and that the
               | administration's argument is nonsense.
               | 
               | 5. The judge, say Eileen Cannon, invalidates the state
               | law.
               | 
               | 6. Circuit Court reverses.
               | 
               | 7. Administration seeks and immediately gets a grant of
               | certiorari -- and the preemption matter is in the Supreme
               | Court.
               | 
               | > passing new law ... only way they'd get it in front of
               | a judge.
               | 
               | The EO directs Bondi to investigate whether, and argue
               | that, existing executive regulations (presumably on other
               | topics) preempt state legislation.
               | 
               | Regardless, the EO makes it a priority to find and take
               | advantage of _some way_ to challenge and possibly
               | invalidate state laws on the subject. This is a new take
               | on preemption: creation of a state-law vacuum on the
               | subject, through scorched-earth litigation (how
               | Trumpian!), despite an utter absence of federal
               | legislation on the matter.
        
               | krapp wrote:
               | >2. Trump preemptively threatens to withhold all Federal
               | funding to any state that intends to pass any laws he
               | doesn't like.
               | 
               | >2.5 If it's a blue state, maybe the National Guard and
               | ICE suddenly show up in force for the people's own
               | protection.
               | 
               | >3. States choose entirely of their own volition to
               | comply in advance.
               | 
               | That's probably how this is really going to go.
        
               | treetalker wrote:
               | > My Administration must act with the Congress to ensure
               | that there is a minimally burdensome national standard --
               | not 50 discordant State ones. ...
               | 
               | Sounds like leaving it up to Congress! But then the
               | administration vows to thwart state laws despite the
               | vacuum of no extant preemption, so effectively imposing a
               | type of supposed Executive preemption:
               | 
               | > Until such a national standard exists, however, it is
               | imperative that my Administration takes action to check
               | the most onerous and excessive laws emerging from the
               | States that threaten to stymie innovation.
               | 
               | So preemption link is relevant, I think; and at any rate,
               | helpful to give background to those not familiar with the
               | concept, which constitutes the field against which this
               | is happening.
        
               | Loughla wrote:
               | Also why are they small federal government states rights
               | for things but big federal government centralized power
               | for this? It doesn't make sense to me.
        
               | josh_p wrote:
               | When you start thinking of the political elite as out of
               | touch sociopathic aristocrats, it becomes easier to
               | understand their behavior.
               | 
               | Their goal is to make money and enrich their own lives at
               | the expense of everyone else.
               | 
               | Stephen Miller is just super weird though. Don't bother
               | trying to figure that guy out.
        
               | sterlind wrote:
               | the Task Force can try to challenge state AI laws. they
               | can file whatever lawsuits they want. they will probably
               | lose most of their suits, because there's very little
               | ground for challenging state AI regulations.
        
               | TylerE wrote:
               | Those suits will be seen by the worst judges the Heritage
               | Foundation could ram through. I would not be nearly so
               | confident of a sane outcome.
        
               | zerocrates wrote:
               | It's right in the text of the EO: they intend to argue
               | that the state laws are preempted by existing federal
               | regulations, and they also direct the creation of new
               | regulations to create preemption if necessary,
               | specifically calling on the FCC and FTC to make new
               | federal rules to preempt disfavored state laws.
               | Separately it talks about going to Congress for new laws
               | but mostly this lays out an attempt to do it with
               | executive action as much as possible, both through
               | preemption and by using funding to try to coerce the
               | states.
               | 
               | There's a reasonable argument that nationwide regulation
               | is the more efficient and proper path here but I think
               | it's pretty obvious that the intent is to make toothless
               | "regulation" simply to trigger preemption. You don't have
               | to do much wondering to figure out the level of
               | regulation that David Sacks is looking for.
        
               | nhaehnle wrote:
               | That's the whole point. They aren't law, and they were
               | (probably) never meant to be so far-reaching, and yet the
               | clear purpose of this Executive Order is to tell the
               | states what laws they can enact. The EO doesn't have the
               | legal power to do that directly, but it clearly outlines
               | the intention to withdraw federal funding from states
               | that refuse to toe the line.
        
           | treetalker wrote:
           | peterlk and lesuorac nail it: the EO purports to preempt
           | state law, but EOs aren't law and that's not how preemption
           | works.
        
           | ang_cire wrote:
           | Probably something to do with the section titled:
           | 
           | > Sec. 7. *Preemption of State Laws* Mandating Deceptive
           | Conduct in AI Models.
        
         | kemitchell wrote:
         | CRS is really underappreciated. Seeing you link that report
         | here made me happy.
        
       | treetalker wrote:
       | Federal Preemption: A Legal Primer --
       | https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R45825
        
       | throw0101a wrote:
       | Executive order (EO) count over the last few presidents:
       | 
       | * Bush (41): 166
       | 
       | * Clinton (two terms): 364
       | 
       | * Bush (43; two terms): 291
       | 
       | * Obama (two terms): 276
       | 
       | * Trump (45): 220
       | 
       | * Biden: 162
       | 
       | * Trump (47; <1 year): 218
       | 
       | Source:
       | 
       | * https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/executive-or...
       | 
       | Someone commented that (one of?) the reason that Trump is using
       | EOs so much is probably because is not willing (or able) to
       | actually get deals on in the legislature to pass his policies (or
       | what passes for policy with him).
        
         | conception wrote:
         | Or why bother when no one will stop you from ruling by fiat?
        
           | nh23423fefe wrote:
           | Yes, why would you bother not exercising power you possess?
        
             | scythmic_waves wrote:
             | Yep. I punch literally everyone I meet in the face.
             | 
             | I have the power to do it. Why would I not?
        
               | janalsncm wrote:
               | Is assaulting people going further your goals?
               | 
               | Presumably EOs further the President's goals.
        
               | estimator7292 wrote:
               | Many of those goals are to simply hurt the "wrong" type
               | of people.
        
               | N_Lens wrote:
               | "And then the leopards ate my face"
        
               | gtirloni wrote:
               | If it does further my goals then it's fine to punch
               | people in the face?
        
             | gopher_space wrote:
             | Do you mean "restraint"?
        
         | LPisGood wrote:
         | I once heard it said that Trump governs like a dictator because
         | he is too weak to govern like a president. He is extremely
         | unpopular and his party holds one of the smallest house
         | majorities ever.
        
           | Alupis wrote:
           | There is a very vocal opposition to Trump. However, by almost
           | any way you can present "popularity" of a president - be it
           | approval ratings, polling figures, popular vote, electoral
           | vote, etc. - he is one of the more popular presidents in US
           | history.
           | 
           | It's easy to get caught in an echo chamber of like-minded
           | individuals and assume _everyone_ disagrees with his policies
           | - but that is far from reality.
        
             | lesuorac wrote:
             | > However, by almost any way you can present "popularity"
             | of a president - be it approval ratings, polling figures,
             | popular vote, electoral vote, etc. - he is one of the more
             | popular presidents in US history.
             | 
             | You might want to look up those data yourself because uh
             | he's actually unpopular in those metrics.
             | 
             | Approval - 42.5% [1]. Much better than Trump's love
             | interest Biden's 37.1% [2] but being below 50% is
             | unpopular.
             | 
             | Popular Vote / Electoral Vote - 49.8%, 312. I may need to
             | tell you this so I will. 50% is greater than 49.8%; a
             | majority of voters (nevermind the country) did not want
             | Trump. As before, this is better than Biden's 306 and
             | Trump1's 304 but worse than Obama2 (332), Obama1 (365) and
             | in general 312 (57%) is nothing to write home about.
             | 
             | [1]: https://www.natesilver.net/p/trump-approval-ratings-
             | nate-sil...
             | 
             | [2]: https://www.natesilver.net/p/why-biden-failed
        
             | mullingitover wrote:
             | > he is one of the more popular presidents in US history.
             | 
             | Published today: "Trump's approval rating on the economy
             | hits record low 31%"[1]
             | 
             | > President Trump's approval rating on his longtime
             | political calling card -- the economy -- has sunk to 31%,
             | the lowest it has been across both of his terms as
             | president, according to a new survey from The Associated
             | Press-NORC.
             | 
             | "Trump's Approval Rating Drops to 36%, New Second-Term Low"
             | [2]
             | 
             | > his all-time low was 34% in 2021, at the end of his first
             | term after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
             | 
             | The man is only two points above where he was when every
             | reputable institution on the planet was running away from
             | him as fast as possible, and he was nearly convicted in the
             | senate. Less than a year into the term.
             | 
             | [1] https://www.axios.com/2025/12/12/trump-economy-
             | inflation-aff...
             | 
             | [2] https://news.gallup.com/poll/699221/trump-approval-
             | rating-dr...
        
               | roenxi wrote:
               | Yeah it'd be a wild view to call him among the most
               | popular. But he is actually [0] pretty standard for a
               | modern president - probably the least popular [1] but he
               | doesn't stand out that much among the Bush/Biden/Obama
               | polling except that it appears people understood what he
               | was going to do before he entered office instead of
               | discovering it on the way through.
               | 
               | And there is an interesting argument that most modern
               | presidential approvals have more to do with the media
               | environment and better visibility on just how bad their
               | policies are.
               | 
               | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_president
               | ial_app...
               | 
               | [1] I'd argue better than that loser Bush who was
               | probably the worst president in modern US history and
               | who's polling showed it, but for the sake of keeping
               | things simple.
        
               | mullingitover wrote:
               | > And there is an interesting argument that most modern
               | presidential approvals have more to do with the media
               | environment and better visibility on just how bad their
               | policies are.
               | 
               | I think you can go further, the ratings are also heavily
               | tied to things like gasoline prices and the overall
               | economy, and generally things the president has little
               | control over. So actually not much to do with their
               | policies at all. I think Trump knows this and it's why
               | he's done some strategically stupid things to the US
               | fossil fuel industry in order to tactically bring down
               | gasoline prices to juice his ratings.
               | 
               | This likely also explains the 2024 election, because it
               | happened in the context of vast sums of money being
               | sucked out of the economy as the fed tried to fight
               | inflation. Incumbents globally got an absolute thrashing
               | that year regardless of what their actual policies were.
        
               | reactordev wrote:
               | So it's only downhill from here?
        
             | outside1234 wrote:
             | Dude, I'm a swing voter and even I can see his popularity
             | ratings are historically low.
        
             | jeremyjh wrote:
             | > It's easy to get caught in an echo chamber
             | 
             | No shit?
        
           | gigatree wrote:
           | *Extremely unpopular in DC, fwiw
        
             | nemo wrote:
             | Also a 31% approval rating, unpopular with a large majority
             | of people in the US, fwiw
        
               | rafram wrote:
               | 31% _on the economy_ specifically. Unbelievably (to me),
               | a full 41% of the country still believes he's doing a
               | good job in general.
        
           | N_Lens wrote:
           | GOP is a party captured by the very wealthy. It's minority
           | rule because of certain elites' trillion dollar plans to
           | control all three branches of government and the courts have
           | come to fruition after decades in the works.
           | 
           | After Nixon a lot of lessons were learned, on how to handle
           | scandals and how to ram unpopular policy down America's
           | throat.
        
         | cdrnsf wrote:
         | EOs also aren't laws, they're instructions on how to execute
         | policy. This administration treats them as the former.
         | 
         | Everything they do, however, is petty, cruel and nakedly
         | corrupt while also being marred by a total lack of competence.
        
           | sterlind wrote:
           | I think the Administration is likely to get its toys taken
           | away soon.
           | 
           | the Major Questions Doctrine, the end of _Chevron_ deference,
           | the mandate for Article III courts from _Jarkesy_ , have been
           | building towards this for a while. the capstone in this
           | program of weakening the administrative state, overturning
           | _Humphrey 's Executor_ when _Trump v. Slaughter_ is decided,
           | will likely revive the Intelligible Principle Doctrine, as
           | Justice Gorsuch has hinted. the same trend is apparent in the
           | IEEPA tariffs case, where non-delegation got a lot of
           | airtime.
           | 
           | EOs lose a lot of their punch when the Executive's delegated
           | rulemaking and adjudication powers are returned back to their
           | rightful owners in the other two branches.
        
             | Hnrobert42 wrote:
             | I fear by reducing control over executive power to one,
             | squishy standard like the Intelligible Principle Doctrine
             | will let SCOTUS pick and choose which laws have
             | intelligible principles. When conservatives are in power,
             | suddenly all laws will have them. And swing back when
             | liberals are in control.
        
             | Refreeze5224 wrote:
             | I don't know where you get the confidence that any of that
             | matters to SCOTUS. They know their role, and they are
             | playing.
        
               | parineum wrote:
               | SCOTUS has ruled against Trump numerous times.
        
               | thrance wrote:
               | But they rule in his favor more often than not. They gave
               | him freaking immunity for any crimes he may commit. This
               | alone enables him to disregard the law without any fear
               | of repercussions.
        
               | throw0101a wrote:
               | > _This alone enables him to disregard the law without
               | any fear of repercussions._
               | 
               | That does not apply to his lackeys though (unless there's
               | a preemptive pardon).
               | 
               | If (!) there's a change in the President eventually,
               | there needs to be a reckoning for everyone that didn't
               | push back on instructions/orders (including all the folks
               | down the line who are blowing up (alleged) drug boats).
        
               | jeremyjh wrote:
               | Everyone will have preemptive pardons. That has already
               | been guaranteed to them or we wouldn't see so much open
               | lawlessness.
        
               | dboreham wrote:
               | That the president can pardon any criminal providing no
               | justification is preposterous nonsense. Much reform is
               | needed.
        
             | throw0101a wrote:
             | > _I think the Administration is likely to get its toys
             | taken away soon._
             | 
             | Perhaps worth reading "The umpire who picked a side: John
             | Roberts and the death of rule of law in America":
             | 
             | * https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-
             | interactive/2025/aug/...
             | 
             | Also "John Roberts and the Cynical Cult of Federalist No.
             | 70":
             | 
             | * https://newrepublic.com/article/204334/john-roberts-
             | federali...
             | 
             | And "This Is All John Roberts' Fault":
             | 
             | * https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/11/john-
             | roberts-do...
             | 
             | And perhaps "Trump Allies Sue John Roberts To Give White
             | House Control Of Court System":
             | 
             | * https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-allies-sue-john-
             | rob...
        
         | josh_p wrote:
         | Yes, and..
         | 
         | Each EO tests the waters a bit more with what the public and
         | other branches will tolerate. As we've seen with numerous
         | orders already, Congress and business will comply early because
         | they think it will benefit them.
         | 
         | Trump thinks himself a king. He acts like it. He's attempting
         | to normalize his behavior. He can't deal with the legislature
         | because it turns out white supremacy isn't that popular. Who
         | knew?
        
           | noitpmeder wrote:
           | Apparently popular enough to get him elected. It's not like
           | his supporters were under any pretense who or what they were
           | voting for
        
             | josh_p wrote:
             | I think the GOP, the right, etc. do propaganda very well.
             | And they're good at spinning scandals into things their
             | voter base wants to hear. Or just burying them in a way
             | that makes it hard for their base to find.
             | 
             | Even the centrist TV networks are still treating Trump like
             | a normal president. News like the NYTimes does the same,
             | while platforming horrible people in their op ed section.
             | 
             | Edit: anec-data - I have an embarrassing number of family
             | members that voted for him. I asked why and the surprising
             | common thing among all of them was they just didn't know.
             | The felonies, convictions, scandals, the racism and
             | transphobia. They were just surprised. And they're not very
             | good at thinking critically about much of it.
             | 
             | Instead they're voting for some nostalgia and the idea that
             | they felt safer and more secure in their country when they
             | were younger.
        
               | exogeny wrote:
               | Ross Douthat makes me (figuratively) vomit every time I
               | read his nonsensical garbage.
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | meanwhile the url is a different, more direct kind of statement:
       | 
       |  _eliminating-state-law-obstruction-of-national-artificial-
       | intelligence-policy_
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | Some more discussion:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46239009
        
         | dang wrote:
         | We'll merge that thread hither.
        
       | xeonmc wrote:
       | In a parallel universe, the government in the 20th century signed
       | bills protecting tobacco giants from State regulation to
       | encourage investments furthering the country's international
       | competitiveness in the tobacco industry.
        
         | sigwinch wrote:
         | That does kind of draw a contrast between Jesse Helms, the
         | ultimate tobacco Senator, and Trump. They're almost opposites.
        
         | eastof wrote:
         | In a parallel universe tobacco is critical to the national
         | security interest of the state. I feel you and other commenters
         | in this thread are ignoring the fact that the outcome of the
         | next war will likely be decided on the cyber front.
        
           | N_Lens wrote:
           | I don't think humanity will survive the next war.
        
             | spencerflem wrote:
             | I'm hopeful humanity will, but civilization isn't making it
        
       | chrisjj wrote:
       | True current title: Trump signs executive order aimed at
       | preventing states from regulating AI
        
         | nhaehnle wrote:
         | In particular, the bulk of the substantial text of the order
         | has a pretty clear culture war bend with all the talk about how
         | truthful AI is. This is in large part a fight over the
         | political leaning of AI models.
        
       | chrisjj wrote:
       | > Earlier this week, he reiterated that sentiment in a post on
       | Truth Social, saying: "We are beating ALL COUNTRIES at this point
       | in the race, but that won't last long if we are going to have 50
       | States, many of them bad actors
       | 
       | Has Trump IDed the alleged bad actor states?
        
         | sigwinch wrote:
         | It's hard to tell if what he says is even relate to what he
         | will do. A hardline on semiconductors to China faded this week
         | when he needed some economic stimulation.
         | 
         | So when states without AI data centers seek to ameliorate tax
         | and zoning obstacles, it won't be Federal preemption in their
         | way, but what benefits Trump.
        
         | munchler wrote:
         | It's the blue ones, of course.
        
       | k310 wrote:
       | > Republicans earlier this year failed to pass a similar 10-year
       | moratorium on state laws that regulate AI as part of Trump's One
       | Big Beautiful Bill Act, with the Senate voting 99-1 to remove
       | that ban from the legislation. Trump's order resurrects that
       | effort, which failed after bipartisan pushback and Republican
       | infighting, but as an order that lacks the force of law. [0]
       | 
       | > Trump has framed the need for comprehensive AI regulation as
       | both a necessity for the technology's development and as a means
       | of preventing leftist ideology from infiltrating generative AI -
       | a common conservative grievance among tech leaders such as Elon
       | Musk.
       | 
       | On the other hand ..... Grok and others ...
       | 
       | From the party of "states rights" and "small government"
       | 
       | [0] https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-
       | topics/d...
        
       | rubyfan wrote:
       | Is it me or does this seem like naked corruption at its worst?
       | These tech CEOs hang out at the White House and donate to
       | superfluous causes and suddenly the executive is protecting their
       | interests. This does nothing to protect working US citizens from
       | AI alien (agents) coming to take their jobs and displace their
       | incomes.
        
         | AndrewKemendo wrote:
         | > protect working US citizens from AI alien (agents) coming to
         | take their jobs and displace their incomes
         | 
         | So where is this coalition that's organized to actually make
         | this real?
         | 
         | Software engineers are allergic to unionization (despite the
         | recent id win) and 100% of capital owners (this is NOT business
         | owner and operators I'm talking about LPs and Fund Managers)
         | are in support of labor automation as a priority, the same
         | people also run every government and overwhelmingly select the
         | politicians available to vote for, so who will fund and lead
         | your advocacy?
        
           | soulofmischief wrote:
           | Game developers are subject to much more abuse than the
           | average software engineering job, for less pay. It's a
           | different environment.
           | 
           | I'm open to the idea of guilds, but personally I do not want
           | others negotiating for me with the type of work I do, I'd
           | prefer it to be a contract between me, my employer and
           | nothing else. Unions aren't always a net benefit for every
           | industry.
           | 
           | Of course, with AI going the way it is, collective bargaining
           | might become more attractive in our field. But institutions
           | can be slow to catch up and not everyone always agrees with
           | the outcome. Personally, if I worked in Hollywood, I'd be
           | upset about the kind of anti-AI scaremongering and regulation
           | taking place in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.
        
         | whynotmaybe wrote:
         | That's lobbying simplified, no need to pay lobbyist.
        
           | rchaud wrote:
           | This is a tribute system, way past lobbying. Lobbying is
           | cheap, Senators can be bought off for 5-figure sums. CEOs pay
           | lobbyists so _they_ don 't have to meet with them personally.
           | What's happening now involves CEOs appearing at political
           | events and lobbying the president personally, to the tune of
           | millions of dollars in declared "donations" for "ballroom
           | construction", in exchange for security guarantees for their
           | business empires.
        
           | jfengel wrote:
           | Lobbying is tightly regulated, and the FEC really does keep a
           | close eye.
           | 
           | This is just flat out bribery, using the thinnest of legal
           | fig leaves. Which would not possibly pass muster if he hadn't
           | also packed the court with supporters.
        
             | davidw wrote:
             | > does keep a close eye
             | 
             | "kept", I think.
        
         | outside1234 wrote:
         | You aren't missing anything. This is oligarchic capture of the
         | government.
        
         | oceanplexian wrote:
         | > This does nothing to protect working US citizens from AI
         | alien (agents) coming to take their jobs and displace their
         | incomes.
         | 
         | Where did you get the idea that banning new technology that
         | could eliminate jobs is even remotely an American value?
         | 
         | Going back to the Industrial Revolution the United States has
         | been 100% gas pedal all the time on innovation and disruption,
         | which has in turn created millions of jobs that didn't exist
         | before and led to the US running the world's largest economy.
        
           | slg wrote:
           | The patent system. I know someone will respond detailing why
           | the patent system is pro-business, but it is objectively
           | government regulation that puts restrictions on new
           | technology, so it's proof that regulation of that sort is at
           | least an American tradition if not fully an "American value".
        
             | johnebgd wrote:
             | Patents and trademarks are the only ways to create legal
             | monopolies. They are/were intended to reward innovation but
             | despite good intentions are abused.
        
               | lucas_membrane wrote:
               | Not exactly. For example, Major League Baseball has been
               | granted an anti-trust exemption by the US Supreme Court,
               | because they said it was not a business. In some cases in
               | which firms have been found guilty of violating the anti-
               | trust laws, they were fined amounts minuscule in relation
               | to the profits they gained by operating the monopoly.
               | Various governments in the US outsource public services
               | to private monopolies, and the results have sometimes
               | amounted to a serious restraint of trade. The chicanery
               | goes back a long way. For the first decade or so after
               | the passage of the Sherman Act, it was not used against
               | the corporate monopolies that it was written to limit; it
               | was invoked only against labor unions trying to find a
               | way to get a better deal out of the firms operating
               | company stores and company towns etc, etc. Then Teddy
               | Roosevelt, the so-called trust-buster, invoked it under
               | the assumption that he could tell the difference between
               | good and bad monopolies and that he had the power to
               | leave the good monopolies alone. 120 years later, we are
               | in the same sorry situation.
        
               | SequoiaHope wrote:
               | Intellectual property restrictions cause harm even when
               | used as intended. They are an extreme rest restriction on
               | market activity and I believe they cause more harm than
               | good.
        
               | bit1993 wrote:
               | Patents, trademarks, copyright, deeds and other similar
               | concepts are part of what makes capitalism what it is,
               | without them capitalism will not work because they are
               | the mechanisms that enforce private property.
        
           | drivingmenuts wrote:
           | Maybe it should be. The system here in the US has produced
           | some great innovations at the cost of great misery among the
           | non-wealthy. At a time when technology promises an easier
           | life, it only seems to benefit the wealthy, while trying to
           | discard everyone else. The light at the end of the tunnel is
           | a 1%-er about to laughingly crush you beneath their wheels.
        
             | noduerme wrote:
             | I don't think this is the strongest argument. Every
             | technological revolution so far has initially benefited the
             | wealthy and taken a generation or two for its effects to
             | lift the masses out of previous levels of poverty, but
             | ultimately each one has.
             | 
             | To me the stronger argument about AI is that this
             | revolution won't. And that's because this one is not really
             | about productivity or even about capital investment in
             | things that people nominally would want (faster transport,
             | cheaper cotton, home computers). This one is about ending
             | revolution once and for all; it's not about increeasing the
             | wealth of the wealthy, it's about being the first to arrive
             | at AGI and thus cementing that wealth disparity for all
             | perpetuity. It's the endgame.
             | 
             | I don't know if that's true, but that's to me the argument
             | as to why this one is exceptional and why the capitalist
             | argument for American prosperity is inapplicable in this
             | case.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | I don't know about for all perpetuity. If history has
               | shown, anyone that reaches the pinnacle eventually
               | becomes complacent, technology improves by becoming
               | faster/cheaper/smaller. That just means it is prime to
               | always be susceptible to a new something coming along
               | that stands on the shoulders of what came before without
               | having to pay for it. They start where the current leader
               | fought to achieve.
        
               | Arodex wrote:
               | The idea behind self improving AGI is that it will "get"
               | every "new something coming along" before everyone else.
        
               | Nasrudith wrote:
               | Self-improving AI is a rhetorical sleight of hand to make
               | you think that.
               | 
               | Just because it can self improve doesn't mean it improves
               | better than everything else or without substantial costs
               | to develop improvement.
        
               | tehjoker wrote:
               | We have had the capacity to have zero poverty for many
               | decades, maybe over a century. China eliminated extreme
               | poverty.
        
             | hcurtiss wrote:
             | I don't know about that. The poor from just about every
             | other country in the world seem desperate to live in
             | America. While American capitalism has many faults,
             | oppressing the bottom quintile is not one of them. The US
             | median income is consistently top ten globally.
        
               | Gud wrote:
               | This is completely wrong. Even "the poor" in most parts
               | of the world has a pretty good life weight where they
               | are.
               | 
               | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w&pp=ygUMSGFucyBy
               | b3N...
        
               | Arodex wrote:
               | >The poor from just about every other country in the
               | world seem desperate to live in America
               | 
               | Immigration to the USA, _both_ illegal _and_ legal, has
               | cratered.
        
               | reeredfdfdf wrote:
               | Median income doesn't tell much if you don't factor in
               | the cost of living. My salary sucks compared to what I
               | would earn in America, but when I factor in things like
               | free healthcare, daycare and higher level education, I'm
               | better off here.
        
               | petcat wrote:
               | What countries offer free daycare? I know there are a few
               | in Europe. It's not super common, so I'm curious to know
               | where
        
               | sdenton4 wrote:
               | I believe Sweden is one:
               | https://www.sdg16.plus/policies/universal-childcare-
               | model-sw...
        
               | petcat wrote:
               | That doesn't look free. Subsidized, yes. Lots of
               | countries subsidize childcare. Including every US state
        
           | rudedogg wrote:
           | > Where did you get the idea that banning new technology that
           | could eliminate jobs is even remotely an American value?
           | 
           | Copyright law is another counter-example to your argument.
           | But somehow? that's no longer a concern if you have enough
           | money. I guess the trick is to steal from literally everyone
           | so that no one entity can claim any measurable portion of the
           | output as damages.
           | 
           | I've always thought Copyright should be way shorter than it
           | is, but it's suspect that we're having a coming to Jesus
           | moment about IP with all the AI grifting going on.
        
             | zdragnar wrote:
             | Copyright has nothing to do with banning technology. It is
             | a set of rules around a particular kind of property rights.
             | 
             | There are things you can do with technology that are banned
             | as a result of copyright protections, but the underlying
             | technologies are not banned, only the particular use of
             | them is.
        
               | rudedogg wrote:
               | I'm saying if the law was respected _at all_ this
               | technology would be banned. I don't know that I prefer
               | that outcome, but it is the truth.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United
               | _St...
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Clause
        
           | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
           | I think your take is historically accurate. Although one does
           | wonder how long we'll be able to get away with keeping the
           | pedal to the metal. It might be worth taking a moment to
           | install a steering wheel. Rumor has it there are hazards
           | about.
        
           | rubyfan wrote:
           | We regulate medicine, nuclear technology, television, movies,
           | monopolies, energy, financial services, etc. because these
           | things can be harmful if left solely to the market. Americans
           | value honest work, dignity, prosperity and equal opportunity.
           | Innovation is useful in so far as it enables our values -
           | regulation is not counter to Americans interests, it protects
           | them.
        
             | andsoitis wrote:
             | > We regulate medicine, nuclear technology, television,
             | movies, monopolies, energy, financial services, etc.
             | 
             | Many of those regulations at the federal level, yes?
        
               | windexh8er wrote:
               | Sure. And this is not that. This says: before we begin to
               | think about our policy let's make sure to remove any
               | barriers for Mr. Altman and friends so that they don't
               | get sucked down with their Oracle branded boat anchor.
               | 
               | If this had any whiff of actually shedding light on these
               | needed regulations the root OP wouldn't have said what
               | they did. But for now I'm going to head over to
               | Polymarket and see if there are any bets I can place on
               | Trump's kids being appointed to the OpenAI board.
        
               | alterom wrote:
               | >Many of those regulations at the federal level, yes?
               | 
               |  _In addition_ to ones at state level, yes.
        
             | XenophileJKO wrote:
             | I feel like anyone making this argument hasn't studied how
             | those regulations happened.
             | 
             | They ALL happened AFTER people got hurt. That's how we do
             | things here. We always have.
             | 
             | It's kind of messed up, but the alternative is a bunch of
             | rules on things that wouldn't be a real problem.
        
               | miohtama wrote:
               | The latter is called the EU.
        
               | myaccountonhn wrote:
               | Why?
        
               | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
               | Because that's what the people who made all of those
               | rules decided to call themselves.
        
               | true_religion wrote:
               | Who got hurt before the US banned the export of
               | cryptography?
        
               | Cyph0n wrote:
               | The CIA, probably.
        
               | naasking wrote:
               | Cracking Enigma was a big deal in WW2. Germany got hurt
               | real bad.
        
               | XenophileJKO wrote:
               | That wasn't in the list above. We were talking primarily
               | about consumer/market protections.
        
               | rubyfan wrote:
               | It's a lot harder to put the genie back in the bottle
               | once out.
               | 
               | AI is already hurting people. We need regulation to hold
               | it and its benefactors accountable. The federal
               | government is preempting states from doing so.
               | 
               | https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgerwp7rdlvo
               | 
               | https://apnews.com/article/chatbot-ai-lawsuit-suicide-
               | teen-a...
               | 
               | https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-teen-confided-in-an-
               | ai-c...
               | 
               | https://www.pcmag.com/news/openai-sued-by-7-families-for-
               | all...
               | 
               | https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/chatgpt-murder-
               | suicide-...
               | 
               | https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/tens-
               | thousand...
               | 
               | https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/17/tech/electricity-bill-
               | price-i...
        
               | XenophileJKO wrote:
               | I don't think you realize the level of damage it
               | generally takes to get bipartisan support for creation of
               | an oversight body.
               | 
               | It was popularized that an estimated 8,000 infant deaths
               | attributed to swill milk occured every year in NYC in the
               | 1850s (take with a grain of salt).
               | 
               | Even more recently much of the banking regulation only
               | occured after severe market issues that broadly impacted
               | the economy.
               | 
               | On a related note: "Layoffs" are going to be a hard
               | practical harm point to rally around. Unless we
               | fundamentally change the nature of our economy (Which
               | doesn't tend to happen until the previous system
               | collapses.), effeciency is king. Tha market isn't
               | rational, but effeciency is a competitive advantage that
               | compounds over time. So you have a prisoners dilemma
               | here. If you want to restrict a technology that boosts
               | efficiency, you either have to close your market and then
               | put up rules that constrain efficiency or you bleed your
               | prosperity.
        
           | grafmax wrote:
           | The question isn't the jobs created but how have workers
           | benefited from increased productivity? They haven't
           | materially since late 1970s. That's when the American labor
           | movement began its decline. Innovation isn't what helps
           | workers. The gains from innovation have to be wrenched from
           | the hands of the ruling class through organized resistance.
        
           | devmor wrote:
           | > Going back to the Industrial Revolution the United States
           | has been 100% gas pedal all the time on innovation and
           | disruption, which has in turn created millions of jobs that
           | didn't exist before and led to the US running the world's
           | largest economy.
           | 
           | Where did you get the idea that this was the cause that
           | created millions of jobs and lead to the US running the
           | world's largest economy, and not say - the knock-on effects
           | of the US joining WW2 relatively late and unscathed, making
           | it the only major world power left with a functioning enough
           | industrial complex to export to war-ravaged Europe?
        
             | ch_sm wrote:
             | I see your point, but that is definitely not the only cause
             | of American economic dominance. The U.S. has been the
             | largest economy by GDP since ca 1900 - i.e. before the
             | wars.
        
             | mnky9800n wrote:
             | There is more to history than ww2.
        
           | milowata wrote:
           | The case against this EO is not "banning new technology".
           | It's not allowing the federal government to ban any state
           | regulation. And states having the power to make their own
           | rules is maybe the most American value.
        
             | SubiculumCode wrote:
             | It's not even that, as this isn't Federal Law.
        
           | Dumblydorr wrote:
           | Not true that US is 100% gas pedal constantly on innovation.
           | You're forgetting labor reform movements and the service
           | switch away from industry in the last few decades. Also the
           | de-science-ing of the current admin has vastly reduced our
           | innovative capacity, as well as the virtual decapitation of
           | brain drain. Those next generation of brightest immigrants
           | certainly aren't coming here to deal with ICE, and that's
           | been the source of half the great minds in our country
           | throughout its history, gone because of racism.
        
             | mnky9800n wrote:
             | I kind of doubt American scientists will leave en masse to
             | go elsewhere. Their options are only Europe, the UK, or
             | China. Most will not be willing to give up the salaries or
             | the resources available to scientists in the USA, even with
             | the current administration, to go live in strongly
             | hierarchical academic systems that they don't know how to
             | navigate. Especially not for a 30% salary reduction (or
             | more if they go someplace like France or Italy).
        
               | dc396 wrote:
               | Reread what the previous poster said. They were talking
               | about folks coming to the US. Around 50% of doctorate
               | level scientists and graduate students in STEM come from
               | outside the US.
        
               | x3ord wrote:
               | Canada? Australia? 30% (or more) salary cut certainly
               | applies but academic systems are similar and resources
               | are in the same ballpark at top research universities.
        
           | kibwen wrote:
           | _> Going back to the Industrial Revolution the United States
           | has been 100% gas pedal all the time on innovation and
           | disruption_
           | 
           | Until that "innovation and disruption" threatens any
           | established player, at which point they run crying to the
           | government to grease some palms. China is innovating and
           | disrupting the entire energy sector via renewables and
           | battery storage while the US is cowering in the corner trying
           | to flaccidly resuscitate the corpse of the coal industry.
        
           | SubiculumCode wrote:
           | What ISNT an American value is Executive Orders trying to
           | trump State powers without actual legislation.
        
           | ajross wrote:
           | > Going back to the Industrial Revolution the United States
           | has been 100% gas pedal all the time on innovation and
           | disruption
           | 
           | Arguably true, but it's also been way ahead of the pack
           | (people tend to forget this) on protection for organized
           | labor, social safety net entitlements, and regulation of
           | harmful industrial safety and environmental externalities.
           | 
           | This statement is awfully one-sided.
        
         | SilverElfin wrote:
         | It is definitely naked corruption. Lobbying was always around,
         | but I would say that with this administration things are a lot
         | more transactional and a lot more in the open. Companies like
         | Palantir and Anduril and others are being gifted contracts all
         | over the place - that's money we taxpayers are losing.
        
           | A_D_E_P_T wrote:
           | > _Companies like . . . Anduril are being gifted contracts
           | all over the place - that's money we taxpayers are losing._
           | 
           | Can you point to a concrete example of this?
        
             | mikeyouse wrote:
             | It's hard to say what they're actually qualified to do but
             | they went from receiving 1 or 2 contracts per year in the
             | early 2020s for a few 10s of millions and I think one
             | larger $200M one to this since Trump was reelected;
             | 
             | $200M - https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/1527a7adaff1
             | 4a5280fc7...
             | 
             | $140M - https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/c0203e75ec29
             | 49e78966f...
             | 
             | $31M - https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/8b0b944955064
             | 864942fc...
             | 
             | $1M - https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/86d997fbd8a74d
             | 0cb298c...
             | 
             | $642M over 10 years - https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/op
             | p/c9878b113f5143cba7edb...
             | 
             | $3.1M -
             | https://sam.gov/opp/f15d4b63ebc846cd9f4870cfa0772fff/view
             | 
             | $160M - https://www.anduril.com/news/anduril-awarded-
             | contract-to-red...
             | 
             | $86M - https://www.anduril.com/news/special-operations-
             | command-sele...
             | 
             | $100M - https://www.anduril.com/news/anduril-awarded-
             | usd99-6m-for-u-...
        
               | A_D_E_P_T wrote:
               | tbh there's nothing weird about those.
               | 
               | The Marine Corps I-CsUAS award is explicitly described as
               | an IDIQ with a maximum dollar value of $642M over 10
               | years -- though it could be much less -- and reporting
               | indicates it was competitively procured with 10 offerors.
               | It wasn't "gifted"/"no-bid"
               | 
               | Also: $642M spread over 10 years is roughly $64M/year at
               | the ceiling, and ceilings are often not fully used. That
               | scale is not remotely unusual for a program-of-record
               | counter-UAS capability if the government believes the
               | threat is persistent. (Which it does.)
               | 
               | The rest are similarly mundane and justifiable.
               | 
               | Here's what would be weird: Repeated sole-source awards
               | where a competitive approach is feasible, implausible
               | technical scope relative to deliverables, unjustified
               | pricing, or political intervention affecting downselects.
               | I don't see _any_ of that here. (But, okay, let 's not
               | talk about Palantir, lol.)
        
             | esseph wrote:
             | It is well known in Defense circles that much of what
             | Anduril does comes in on no-bid black budget contracts.
             | Often short duration or low volume.
             | 
             | Imagine Silicon Valley CEOs pumped full of VC dollars and
             | embedded with units that Don't Exist in places We Were
             | Never At.
        
         | viccis wrote:
         | Just another step towards Russian style naked oligarchy.
        
         | N_Lens wrote:
         | Par for the course with this administration.
        
         | IAmGraydon wrote:
         | Is it you? I mean, the guy started his term by launching a scam
         | coin along with his wife. He hates the United States and sees
         | it as just something to exploit for financial gain and power.
         | That's it. That's literally all there is to all of his actions.
        
         | bparsons wrote:
         | For this brief moment in time, crime is legal.
        
           | SXX wrote:
           | Whats wrong if US population has voted for this? There was no
           | surprises this time - everyone can expect what is going to
           | happen.
        
             | wood_spirit wrote:
             | Didn't the majority of people vote to "drain the swamp" and
             | "bring down the cost of living"?
        
               | krapp wrote:
               | People had nearly a decade of experience with Donald
               | Trump as a known political entity and decades of receipts
               | and lawsuits prior to 2016 to speak to his amoral and
               | corrupt nature. If they didn't know exactly what they
               | were buying into they were idiots. He isn't exactly a
               | master manipulator.
               | 
               | Also, The first time Trump was elected, the majority of
               | _voters_ went for Hillary Clinton. Second time, it was
               | still 49% versus 48% for Kamala Harris. The majority of
               | Americans have never voted for Donald Trump nor ever
               | supported him.
        
             | soulofmischief wrote:
             | I actually don't want to suffer just because my neighbor is
             | racist.
        
           | soulofmischief wrote:
           | The US was founded on crime. We are a colonial imperial
           | country with a penchant for using racism and religion in
           | order to maintain a certain lifestyle for white supremacists.
           | 
           | Slavery was really not that long ago, we are still actively
           | invading countries and murdering people for oil, and we help
           | bankroll straight up genocide in regions such as Darfur and
           | Palestine.
           | 
           | This is business as usual.
        
             | lowmagnet wrote:
             | We still do slavery and it's even kept in the 13th
             | amendment as a punishment.
        
         | carabiner wrote:
         | This is the most pro-tech admin in decades, and that terrifies
         | me.
        
           | mahirsaid wrote:
           | did you not see who was standing next to him. All of the top
           | tech bros of silicon valley in their search for the fountain
           | of youth.
        
         | conartist6 wrote:
         | I'm in agreement because what is there to say about AI policy?
         | 
         | This govt clearly isn't going to regulate against harms like
         | perpetuating systems of racism. This government adores to
         | perpetuate systems of racism.
         | 
         | So fuck it. Let's race to the bottom like the companies want to
         | so badly.
        
         | seanhunter wrote:
         | You don't seem to appreciate: they paid for the ballroom. They
         | have a right to set policy. That's how an oligarchy works
        
           | testing22321 wrote:
           | That's how campaign contributions have worked for a long
           | time. Now it's just a touch more blatant.
           | 
           | The rest of the world has always called it corruption.
        
         | cyanydeez wrote:
         | At this point corruption. Is the policy.
         | 
         | Its better to aak how this woll make republicans more money,
         | because its not always apparent
        
       | fallingfrog wrote:
       | As expected, the stupidest imaginable policy. Take all the
       | guardrails completely off, even though the ones that are in place
       | are already toothless. Don't worry, the free market will ensure
       | that everything is turned into paperclips at the maximum possible
       | speed.
        
       | siliconc0w wrote:
       | An EO is not law - the hard part is going to be to get congress
       | onboard. Trump is losing political steam and AI is widely
       | unpopular. Most of this country feels AI is going take their job,
       | poison their children, and increase energy prices.
        
         | Animats wrote:
         | Right. Congress has the power to preempt state law in an area
         | related to interstate commerce by legislating comprehensive
         | rules. The executive branch does not have the authority to do
         | that by itself.
         | 
         | This is like Trump's "pardon" of someone serving time for a
         | state crime. It does little if anything.
         | 
         | Quite a number of AI-related bills have been introduced in
         | Congress, but very few have made much progress. Search "AI" on
         | congress.gov.
        
         | missingcolours wrote:
         | > Trump is losing political steam and AI is widely unpopular.
         | 
         | It seems extremely popular based on my LinkedIn feed! /s
        
           | malfist wrote:
           | Good thing LinkedIn is such an authentic representation of
           | the vox populi
        
         | hcurtiss wrote:
         | Where do you get this impression? I don't know anybody who
         | thinks that.
        
       | bgwalter wrote:
       | Pure nepotism. Trump also recently softened on cannabis. Who is
       | involved in cannabis (and Adderall) startups? David Sacks,
       | "Crypto and AI czar" and YouTube pundit.
       | 
       | We were promised a better economy, better job chances, and better
       | housing by Mr. Sacks on YouTube.
       | 
       | Instead we get "crypto", "AI" and addictive substance grifting.
        
         | m4ck_ wrote:
         | Perhaps folks should take some time to realize they've been
         | conned by people whose only interest is their own personal
         | weatlh and power, and will promise anything like "prices are
         | going down day one" or "your income and networth will DOUBLE if
         | you elect me" to get elected.
        
       | ETH_start wrote:
       | Very welcome order to prevent the anti-AI movement from stymieing
       | the development of AI in the U.S.
        
         | DannyBee wrote:
         | Except it does literally nothing since EO can't preempt state
         | law
        
           | petcat wrote:
           | It could have some teeth considering that the whole point is
           | the executive office is going to establish a task force that
           | investigates state laws in opposition of this federal
           | deregulation of AI. Any states deemed to be out of sync will
           | have certain kinds of federal funding cut from them.
           | 
           | There are a lot of states, and especially state universities,
           | that will not like that.
        
             | DannyBee wrote:
             | The Executive can't actually cut approriated federal
             | funding, since budgets are congress's job.
             | 
             | The executive, in fact, _must_ spend money that congress
             | appropriates. Unless it is illegal /et al to do so, or the
             | funding otherwise allows prseidential discretion, they are
             | required to do so.
             | 
             | Yes, they did some EO's purporting to cut funding. None
             | that related to non-discretionary funding have been upheld,
             | even by "trump" judges, and so far all non-discretionary
             | (IE explicitly directed by congress) funding cut has been
             | restored, AFAIK. All are a wildly clear violation of
             | separation of powers, and so far no judge has disagreed.
             | 
             | (Though don't confuse whether they have to spend the money
             | the way congress directs with whether they can or can't
             | fire federal employees, etc)
             | 
             | There is a path to the president impounding appropriated
             | money through the impoundment control act, but they haven't
             | done it or followed the process so far.
        
       | nickpsecurity wrote:
       | More than anything, they need to match and then exceed
       | Singapore's text and data mining exception for copyrighted works.
       | I'll be happy to tell them how since I wrote several versions of
       | it trying to balance all sides.
       | 
       | The minimum, though, is that all copyrighted works the supplier
       | has legal access to can be copied, transformed arbitrarily, and
       | used for training. And they can share those and transformed
       | versions with anyone else who already has legal access to that
       | data. And no contract, including terms of use, can override that.
       | And they can freely scrape it but maybe daily limits imposed to
       | avoid destructive scraping.
       | 
       | That might be enough to collect, preprocess, and share datasets
       | like The Pile, RefinedWeb, uploaded content the host shares (eg
       | The Stack, Youtube). We can do a lot with big models trained that
       | way. We can also synthesize other data from them with less risk.
        
       | d--b wrote:
       | This is hardly readable. What's this about?
        
       | ngcc_hk wrote:
       | National ... is it relevant ? And what is the point and why
       | republicans do what the democrats do. Wonder.
        
       | insane_dreamer wrote:
       | And here I thought the GOP was the "states rights" "small gov"
       | party.
        
         | justarandomname wrote:
         | Yeah, was thinking the same thing. Reading this:
         | 
         | > State-by-State regulation by definition creates a patchwork
         | of 50 different regulatory regimes
         | 
         | Like... isn't that the whole point? Let the states decide?
        
         | ziml77 wrote:
         | It's never been about principles of states rights. It's always
         | about disliking specific national policies and spinning the
         | argument to make it sound as if it's about a reasonable
         | principle.
         | 
         | "State's rights to do what?"
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZB2ftCl2Vk
        
       | maplethorpe wrote:
       | > shall, in consultation with the Special Advisor for AI and
       | Crypto
       | 
       | It's funny to me that they categorise AI and crypto together like
       | this, two technologies that have nothing to do with each other
       | (other than both being favoured by grifters).
        
         | tbrownaw wrote:
         | > _categorise AI and crypto together like this, two
         | technologies that have nothing to do with each other (other
         | than both being favoured by grifters)._
         | 
         | No, they're different in that regard as well; AI actually does
         | have a bit of "there" there.
        
       | rokoss21 wrote:
       | The regulation vs innovation framing is a false dichotomy here.
       | Most developed economies have found that thoughtful regulation
       | enables _sustainable_ innovation - see GDPR and data privacy
       | innovation, or pharma regulations driving R&D.
       | 
       | For AI specifically, baseline standards around model
       | documentation, data sourcing transparency, and compute auditing
       | would actually help larger players (who can afford compliance)
       | and reduce race-to-bottom dynamics that harm smaller developers.
        
       | aw124 wrote:
       | Question number one. Is dominance really a necessary part of a
       | country's existence? Can't you just have peaceful relations and
       | supportive relationships with other countries to live in harmony,
       | when artificial intelligence brings benefits to all countries,
       | not just the USA? Can't you build on the technological
       | foundations that have been laid to create sustainable development
       | for your society?
       | 
       | The desire for more. To have more than others, is a key problem
       | that generates unhealthy politics. Unhealthy foreign policy
       | towards other countries. In your pursuit of being first in
       | everything. Being first in everything, preventing the development
       | of other countries, holding onto technologies for yourself. You
       | create an imbalance. You create an imbalance in the global
       | economy, in politics, in the social sphere, and in the social
       | environment.
       | 
       | Isn't there an alternative to having sustainable development?
       | Built on the principles of mutual support and focused not on
       | dominance, but on collaboration between peaceful states. Between
       | peaceful states.
        
         | isubkhankulov wrote:
         | Yes, dominance is preferred. Countries' resources aren't evenly
         | distributed, and this fact determines foreign policy more than
         | anything else.
         | 
         | There's no world govt or global authority. Every country must
         | look after its own interests.
         | 
         | Having every country cooperate requires trusting some entity as
         | a global enforcer, one that wont abuse their unchecked power.
         | Obviously, america has played this role since ww2 but not
         | without plenty of mistakes and oversights.
         | 
         | We as humans haven't found an alternative to this yet.
        
         | tbrownaw wrote:
         | > _Can 't you just have peaceful relations and supportive
         | relationships with other countries to live in harmony_
         | 
         | "I can picture a world without fear, without hate. I can
         | picture us conquering that world, because they'd never expect
         | it."
        
       | arminiusreturns wrote:
       | Where this is really going: AI is the boogie man they are going
       | to try to use to infiltrate and take over computing, it's 90s
       | cryptowars 3.0
       | 
       | The pivot will be when they starting talking about AGI and it's
       | dangers and how it must be regulated! (/clutches pearls)... right
       | now they are at the "look at AI we need it it's awesome" stage.
        
       | DannyBee wrote:
       | Any company dumb enough to try to use this to ignore actual state
       | law will get what they deserve. No state court will give them a
       | pass when they claim an EO has any force of law or that it was
       | reasonable to rely on it.
       | 
       | Even given the current state of things (I'm a lawyer, so well
       | aware) I would put money on this
        
       | resters wrote:
       | Like most of what Trump does it's _1000% emo_ and also very
       | stupid. It 's proudly anti-democratic and fundamentally
       | disrespectful of American values.
       | 
       | People fall for it because fear of foreign rivals, frustration
       | with a regulatory patchwork, and anti-"ideological" backlash make
       | a centralized, tough-sounding fix emotionally satisfying. Big
       | Tech and national-security rhetoric also create an illusion that
       | "dominance" equals safety and prosperity, short-circuiting
       | careful federalism and due process.
        
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