Washington, March 20 The White House on Friday released a framework for artificial intelligence that aims to empower parents to manage their children's digital environment and advocates for federal leadership, contending that a patchwork of conflicting state laws would undermine innovation.
The legislative blueprint for Congress is divided into seven broad categories, ranging from online safety laws for children to the protection of free speech and the streamlining of AI infrastructure.
"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 a statement on its website.
The framework urges Congress to build on its existing online safety actions for kids, such as the Take It Down Act, which criminalized the online publication of nonconsensual sexually explicit "deepfake" images and videos.
The White House said that future regulations should give parents and guardians "robust tools" to manage children's online activity, along with creating "commercially reasonable privacy protective" age assurance requirements.
Besides online safety for children, the AI framework's guiding principles include safeguarding and strengthening American communities; respecting intellectual property rights, preventing censorship and protecting free speech, enabling innovation and ensuring American AI dominance, and educating Americans and developing an AI-ready workforce.
"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," it said.
The statement said the Administration recognized that some Americans feel uncertain about how this transformative technology will affect issues they care about, like their children's wellbeing or their monthly electricity bill.
"These issues, along with other emerging AI policy considerations, require strong Federal leadership to ensure the public's trust in how AI is developed and used in their daily lives," it said.
The White House recommended that Congress not preempt states from enforcing their own online safety laws for children, including those related to sexual abuse material, even when created by AI.
It urged Congress to guarantee ratepayers will not face increased electricity costs due to new AI data centre construction and operation, while also streamlining federal permitting for faster infrastructure development.
"Importantly, this framework can succeed only if it is applied uniformly across the United States. A patchwork of conflicting state laws would undermine American innovation and our ability to lead in the global AI race," the White House statement said.
It asserted that the Federal government is uniquely positioned to set a consistent national policy that enables us to win the AI race and deliver its benefits to the American people, while effectively addressing the policy challenges that accompany this transformative technology.
The Administration looks forward to working with Congress in the coming months to turn this framework into legislation that the President can sign, the statement said.