The White House unveiled a new comprehensive framework to regulate artificial intelligence on a federal level, with hopes to make the United States more competitive with foreign countries while still implementing protections for children and managing energy costs.
The four-page proposal was released on Friday, outlining seven main priorities for AI regulation at the federal level, urging lawmakers to approve a single national AI law to prioritize competition but limiting state regulation. The highly anticipated framework comes months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order blocking states from adopting their own AI regulations.
“The Trump administration is committed to winning the AI race to usher in a new era of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security for the American people,” the White House said in its framework. “Achieving these goals requires a commonsense national policy framework that both enables American industry to innovate and thrive and ensures that all Americans benefit from this technological revolution.”
The White House is pushing for light regulation as a way to ensure the U.S. doesn’t fall behind in the global AI race, particularly against China. The framework proposes the establishment of sector-specific regulatory bodies to oversee AI regulation rather than just one single “federal rulemaking body.”
The first priority outlined in the framework aims to protect children “while empowering parents” to more closely control “their children’s digital environment and upbringing.” Doing so would require AI platforms to implement tools to manage privacy settings, screen time, content exposure, and account controls, according to the framework.
Part of this would also include requirements for AI services to add features that “reduce the risks of sexual exploitation and self-harm to minors” as well as limits on data collection and targeted advertising.
Other tenets of the framework would streamline data center permits so AI developers can “develop or procure on-site and behind-the-meter power generation to accelerate AI infrastructure buildout and enhance grid reliability.” It would also establish guardrails to “prevent the United States government from coercing technology providers, including AI providers, to ban, compel, or alter content based on partisan or ideological agendas.”
Congressional leaders were quick to respond to the framework, vowing to engage in bipartisan conversations to pass a federal law in the coming months.
“AI has begun to demonstrate its potential to improve Americans’ lives,” Speaker Mike Johnson, Leader Steve Scalise, and top committee chairmen said in a joint statement. “To ensure we continue to harness its potential and beat China in the global AI race, Congress must take action. … House Republicans look forward to working across the aisle to enact a national framework that unleashes the full potential of AI, cements the U.S. as the global leader, and provides important protections for American families.”