The White House published it’s long-awaited AI legislative recommendations on Friday, and it still includes a call for Congress to preempt states from regulating AI. Our full statement is below. First, here’s the key context:

• Preemption is insanely unpopular: poll after poll has shown that no one thinks preemption is a good idea except Big Tech.
• It’s not as if Congress doesn’t know that: the Senate rejected preemption by a vote of 99-to-1 last summer.
• And yet, congressional leadership tried to sneak it into the NDAA in November (but that failed too).
• David Sacks isn’t letting preemption’s toxicity stop him: the White House issued an Executive Order in December essentially trying to do an end-run around Congress on preemption. But without Congress, the executive order is fairly weak, which is why the legislative proposal is now passing the ball back to Congress and asking it to codify the moratorium.
• Fun fact: The White House, clearly understanding how unpopular preemption is, opted to not mention the provision in their press release at all.
• Meanwhile, broken promises abound: The White House has repeatedly promised it would not stand in the way of child safety legislation in the states, but Davids Sacks has been directly involved with efforts to kill child safety legislation, most notably in Utah.

To sum it all up…

Michael Kleinman, the Head of US Policy at the Future of Life Institute, issued the following statement in response to the White House’s legislative proposal:

Big Tech and their allies in the administration are desperate to stop states from regulating AI, even as it ravages families, eliminates jobs, and threatens to replace humans wholesale. Huge majorities of Americans, Republican and Democrat alike, are demanding guardrails on this increasingly powerful technology. Instead of listening, David Sacks is working to block states from protecting their own citizens. He’s even tried to block commonsense child safety legislation in conservative states like Utah. It’s as outrageous as it is dangerous.

Any legislative framework that includes federal preemption without meaningful guardrails isn’t serious about protecting Americans. It’s just another handout to Big Tech at the expense of our kids, our communities, and our jobs. David Sacks can rebrand his Big Tech wish list however he likes: Americans aren’t buying it.