The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is postponing plans to take up a series of AI bills until after the summer recess but is proceeding with a markup of child online safety bills next week.
The Wednesday markup features five bills focused on protecting children in the digital world, a few of which touch on AI.
But discussions of broader measures to place guardrails on emerging AI technologies and potentially preempt states enacting and enforcing their own AI regulations did not yield a compromise in time for the markup.
“We needed a little bit more time to work out bipartisan agreement on the broader AI bills,” Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, told The Washington Times.
He said “several” AI bills are under consideration.
One of those bills is led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat.
The senators, working with Mr. Cruz, reworked the Artificial Intelligence Research, Innovation and Accountability Act they first introduced last Congress. The updated measure creates a federal framework for advanced AI threats while preserving state authority over consumer protection, privacy and child safety, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
Mr. Thune said he was “disappointed” the bill would not be part of next week’s Commerce markup.
“We’ve worked really hard to get it ready to go,” he said, adding that it was Democrats who were not ready to sign off on proceeding.
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee, said she has been focused on other legislative negotiations over the AI legislation.
She suggested she had concerns about the Republicans’ approach.
“We need the biggest levels of government to be involved when it comes to national securities, biological and nuclear risk,” she said. “You can’t have self-certification.”
Separating the broader effort to regulate AI from the kids online safety debate may help aid those bills’ passage through committee.
A revamped version of a bipartisan bill the Senate overwhelmingly passed last Congress, called the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, is among those on the agenda for Wednesday’s markup.
KOSA would require social media companies to set minors’ accounts to the strongest safety and privacy settings by default, implement more parental controls and alter design features that drive compulsive use.
The House passed its own version of KOSA as part of a broader package of bills called the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act, or KIDS Act, last month in a 267-117 vote.
The Senate version, co-sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, includes a provision called “the duty of care” that’s a priority for parental advocates who have lost children to the online harms of social media.
The duty-of-care provision is a legal standard that ensures social media companies can be held liable for failing to adjust their algorithms and design features to prevent specific harms to minors. Senators argue it’s what gives KOSA teeth.
The Senate Commerce Committee is also taking up the SCREEN Act, a bill to require age verification for commercial pornographic websites and apps. The measure was part of the KIDS Act package that passed the House.
The other three bills on the agenda for the Senate markup were not part of the House package.
The Youth AI Privacy Act would limit chatbots’ use of minors’ data to respond to questions asked, ensuring companies cannot use it for advertising or profiling.
The CHATBOT Act would require AI companies to establish family accounts for parents to manage their children’s use of chatbots. Family accounts would be mandatory for children under 13 and optional for teens.
The Children’s Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act would ban the manufacturing and distribution of toys incorporating AI chatbots.
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