Inside AI Policy

President Trump bestowed medals on leaders from the artificial intelligence industry, while officials from across the administration announced initiatives and heralded accomplishments in propelling “super intelligence” research and infrastructure buildout, during a “Golden Age Summit” at the White House.

The Center for Democracy and Technology is praising legislation by Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and James Lankford (R-OK) -- the Transparent Automated Governance Act -- for provisions it says will safeguard the privacy of individuals and ensure accountability in federal agencies’ use of artificial intelligence in making crucial decisions.

Former Federal Communications Commission Chair Tom Wheeler says artificial intelligence companies’ pledge to implement monitoring and third-party auditing in the development of frontier AI is an insufficient safeguard against potential public dangers posed by the technology, which demand enforceable oversight by a government entity. “It is commendable that the six leaders of AI recognize the threats in what they are building.

Cybersecurity professionals paying close attention to a recent rash of artificial intelligence incidents -- alongside the exit of “safety” researchers from the leading AI frontier developers -- are highlighting what they say is short shrift given to control and containment measures they’ve long been dedicated to in favor of a new focus on “alignment” issues.

Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN), an Armed Services member, has written to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought praising their artificial intelligence deployment policies while urging them to focus on insider threats to AI systems -- including by obtaining more information from frontier AI companies on current risk mitigation efforts.

Federal Communications Commission member Anna Gomez, a Democrat, is urging her two Republican colleagues to reject a Club for Growth petition seeking an exemption from rules on AI-generated robocalls prior to Election Day. The conservative group says the exemption would remove an outdated barrier to new technology while Gomez says it would undermine privacy protections and subject consumers to a “deluge” of robocalls that the FCC has sought to prevent in other orders.

The Clear Liability for Artificial Intelligence Misconduct Act, introduced as a discussion draft by Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA), could more explicitly address responsibility for harm caused by the technology in cases involving open-weight models where the developer may be difficult to trace, according to University of Houston Law Professor Gabriel Weil.

The Department of Health and Human Services' health IT office announced Oct. 6 over $1 million in funding awards to address challenges with interoperability in small laboratories and improve the use of artificial intelligence in the healthcare ecosystem by giving patients more control in how AI is used in executing their care, Inside Health Policy reported.

Advanced Navigation America is standing up a Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Center of Excellence to develop and produce navigation technology for autonomous systems in Huntsville, AL, Inside Defense/AI reported. Advanced Navigation’s $110 million Series C funding raise will fund the new facility’s establishment, the company said in an Oct. 5 release.

Stakeholders from different points on the political compass are finding agreeable planks in Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell’s (D-WA) new framework for “comprehensive AI governance,” but the unresolved issue of preempting state regulation looms as a major obstacle to advancing artificial intelligence legislation in the Senate. “This is exactly the path.