Tech Consultant Still Unsure What Trump's AI Plan Means for State Rules
There remains great uncertainty over how aggressively the federal government will try to preempt state AI regulations under the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan, said Robert McBlain, global data protection and AI compliance lead at consultancy Thoughtworks.
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The administration's AI plan, released in July, directed federal agencies to potentially withhold discretionary funding from states with AI regulations that “hinder” innovation (see 2507230058).
"States like Illinois, Colorado, Utah and California have put forward some [AI] regulation,” McBlain said Thursday at the Risk Digital Global virtual conference. The Illinois law specifically concerns AI therapists, he noted. “Is that something that the federal government is concerned about? Is that something that they would consider overreach” and “are they interested in reviewing?”
“We don't know,” he said. “No actions have been taken so far, and we're not really sure where they're going to go.”
What the U.S. does has a significant impact on technology, the economy and the rest of the world, added McBlain. “So our fragmentation, our difficulty in finding a safe, consistent way forward, is going to have an impact and potentially slow progress.”