Trump Keeps Trying to Disarm States so Big Tech Can Prey on American Families
Washington, D.C. — On Monday President Donald Trump announced that he would sign an executive order on AI. A previous, leaked order attempted to give the White House and David Sacks the authority to override state AI safety laws. Last week, Demand Progress released a poll showing that large majorities of Democratic and Independent voters want Democratic leadership to fight this attempt by President Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Steve Scalise to ban states from passing or enforcing AI laws. The group also recently led a coalition of 250+ organizations urging Congress to reject adding such a ban to a must-pass defense spending bill and organized a campaign that drove more than 61,000 petition actions to Congress.
The following is a statement from Emily Peterson-Cassin, policy director at Demand Progress:
“David Sacks and Big Tech want free rein to use our children as lab rats for AI experiments and President Trump keeps trying to give it to them. Right now, state laws are our best defense against AI chatbots that have sexual conversations with kids and even encourage them to harm themselves, deepfake revenge porn and half-baked algorithms that make decisions about our employment and health care. Punishing states for enacting AI safeguards only makes sense if the president’s goal is to please the Big Tech elites who helped pay for his campaign, his inauguration and his ballroom.”