Senator Ted Cruz once pushed an artificial intelligence policy so unpopular that not even he ended up voting in favor of it. Now he’s back with a plan to take on new AI regulation proposals in the coming weeks, though no one has any clue how he’s going to approach the matter. Cruz gets to put a pretty big finger on the scale of how the federal government regulates AI, given that he’s the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee. And he’s reportedly weighing several proposed AI bills to decide which ones to advance to a markup session, where lawmakers will try to shape the legislation into something capable of winning bipartisan support and actually passing—a feat the Senate has largely failed to accomplish so far. But no one has any idea what he’s actually going to bring to the table. According to a report from Politico, his own aides aren’t even sure. Senators on the Commerce Committee with Cruz also haven’t heard a peep from the chairman as to what he plans to bring to them, per the report. They don’t even know if he’s going to bring Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn’s agreement with the White House, which would slip a moratorium on states passing their own AI regulations into a bundle of online safety bills, including the controversial Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) that critics warn will restrict online speech and destroy online anonymity.
The Future of AI Is in Ted Cruz's Hands Now
No way it can be as bad as a 10-year moratorium on regulation, right?
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