Trump and his allies go all-in

The Trump administration wants to turn America into an AI superpower — and it's willing to bulldoze decades of tech regulation to get there. 

The same federal government that's been trying to break up Meta and declared Google an illegal monopoly is now rolling out the red carpet for Big Tech's newest obsession, complete with regulatory "sandboxes," preemption of state laws, and a promise to let AI companies build their own power plants.

The contradictions are stark. At a recent Senate hearing, Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, called Colorado's law preventing AI discrimination in employment, housing, and banking "a huge problem for our industry,” — seeming to position himself as part of that industry while supposedly regulating it. (Indeed, Kratsios used to work the startup Scale AI.) Meanwhile, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has introduced legislation creating two-year regulatory exemptions for AI companies, essentially allowing them to experiment on the public with minimal oversight.

China made us do it

This represents a dramatic reversal from the administration's tough-on-tech stance. The same Justice Department suing Google for anticompetitive practices now watches as tech giants announce ever bigger investment deals in AI infrastructure. President Donald Trump, who once threatened to break up Big Tech, now sits at White House dinners flanked by the very executives his administration is supposedly prosecuting.

The industry's successful rebranding of AI as essential to national competitiveness has been remarkably effective. Trump himself declared that companies should be able to train AI on copyrighted material without payment because China is doing it. The message is clear: Normal rules don't apply when you're racing toward artificial general intelligence, or even just a slightly better model.

But scratch beneath the "beat China" rhetoric and you find a more troubling reality. The administration's AI Action Plan essentially hands Silicon Valley a wishlist it's wanted for years: federal preemption of state regulations, streamlined environmental permits, and the ability to self-regulate through corporate-controlled power generation. It's corporate immunity repackaged as national security.

Even Republicans are starting to notice the disconnect. At the recent National Conservatism Conference, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley warned that AI "threatens the common man's liberty" and could undermine the republic itself. Tucker Carlson cautioned that displacing white-collar workers with AI would trigger revolution. Conservative media figures have seized on AI-related tragedies, with Trump ally Mike Davis urging people to "watch and remember" grieving parents' testimony "when the AI oligarchs go begging Congress again."

The administration is putting its money where its mouth is. Employees at the Department of Health and Human Services received orders earlier this year to begin using ChatGPT for everything from emails to analysis, with management urging them to “be vigilant against barriers that could slow our progress.” Elon Musk's xAI has struck a deal to provide its Grok chatbot to federal agencies through 2027, despite the fact that the system has produced offensive language and conspiracy-tinged claims.

The states step in

State governments, meanwhile, are actually trying to protect constituents. California now requires age verification for apps accessed by minors, mandates warning labels on AI-generated content, and regulates chatbots that interact with children. Tennessee protects artists from voice cloning. Colorado prohibits AI discrimination in employment, housing, and healthcare decisions. 

The administration's response? Threaten to withhold federal funding from states that dare regulate AI, while Cruz pushes for Congress to override any state law that might slow development.

The FTC's recent inquiry into how AI chatbots affect children represents a lonely voice of caution from an administration otherwise committed to full-throttle acceleration. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson tried to thread an impossible needle, emphasizing the need to consider effects on children while ensuring America "maintains its role as a global leader in this new and exciting industry."

What's needed isn't cheerleading but actual governance. While the administration fast-tracks permits and creates regulatory sandboxes, it's ignoring basic safeguards: pre-deployment safety testing, liability frameworks for demonstrated harms, transparency for researchers, and states' ability to protect their own citizens.

Despite the hype, AI doesn't require its own regulatory playbook. We managed to regulate airlines without grounding innovation, pharmaceuticals without stopping drug discovery, and financial markets without freezing capital flows. 

The difference is AI companies have successfully convinced Washington that they're not just another tech tool, but rather America's destiny itself. Until policymakers recognize this sleight of hand, we're essentially running a national experiment with no control group — and no way to stop if things go wrong.

—Contributing Editor, Jackie Snow