reached an agreement<\/a> with Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on new text that would bar states from regulating AI for five years and featured exemptions for laws on child online safety and publicity rights.\u00a0<\/p>\nHowever, she pulled support for the updated provision Monday evening. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I appreciate Chairman Cruz\u2019s efforts to find acceptable language that allows states to protect their citizens from the abuses of AI, the current language is not acceptable to those who need these protections the most,\u201d Blackburn said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis provision could allow Big Tech to continue to exploit kids, creators, and conservatives,\u201d she continued. \u201cUntil Congress passes federally preemptive legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act and an online privacy framework, we can\u2019t block states from making laws that protect their citizens.\u201d <\/p>\n
Blackburn has been a key proponent of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which she reintroduced last month alongside Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Senate leadership. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor as long as I\u2019ve been in Congress, I\u2019ve worked alongside federal and state legislators, parents seeking to protect their kids online, and the creative community in Tennessee to fight back against Big Tech\u2019s exploitation by passing legislation to govern the virtual space,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
The Tennessee Republican now plans to co-sponsor Sen. Maria Cantwell\u2019s (D-Wash.) amendment to strip the AI provision from the reconciliation bill, in addition to filing her own amendment, according to Cantwell\u2019s office. <\/p>\n
Cantwell, in turn, also plans to co-sponsor Blackburn\u2019s amendment, alongside Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.). <\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, she had slammed the deal between Blackburn and Cruz, arguing it did \u201cnothing to protect kids or consumers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just another giveaway to tech companies,\u201d Cantwell, who serves as the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a statement. \u201cThis provision gives AI and social media a brand-new shield against litigation and state regulation. This is Section 230 on steroids.\u201d <\/p>\n
“And when [Commerce Secretary] Howard Lutnick has the authority to force states to take this deal or lose all of their BEAD funding, consumers will find out just how catastrophic this deal is,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
The provision is tied to $500 million in AI infrastructure and deployment funding under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. Under the updated language, if states want access to the funds, they cannot regulate AI for five years. The measure previously sought to bar state regulation for a 10-year period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Blackburn\u2019s last-minute shift on the provision comes at a key moment, as the Senate has been voting for hours on amendments to Trump\u2019s \u201cbig, beautiful bill,\u201d which Republicans are hoping to get across the finish line before the July 4 holiday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said Monday that a deal to update language of a provision in President Trump\u2019s tax package seeking to bar states from regulating artificial intelligence (AI) is<\/p>\n
Continue reading <\/use> <\/svg>Blackburn says AI deal with Cruz is off<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1027,"href":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026\/revisions\/1027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}