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This is part of an ongoing series of Covington blogs on the AI policies, executive orders, and other actions of the Trump Administration.  The first blog summarized key actions taken in the first weeks of the Trump Administration, including the revocation of President Biden’s 2023 Executive Order 14110 on the “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of AI” and the release of President Trump’s Executive Order 14179 on “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence” (“AI EO”).  This blog describes actions on AI taken by the Trump Administration in February 2025.Continue Reading February 2025 AI Developments Under the Trump Administration

On January 29, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced the Decoupling America’s Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from China Act (S. 321), one of the first bills of 119th Congress to address escalating U.S. competition with China on artificial intelligence.  The new legislation comes just days after Chinese AI company DeepSeek launched its R1 AI model with advanced capabilities that has been widely viewed as a possible turning point in the U.S.-China AI race.  If enacted, S. 321 would impose sweeping prohibitions on U.S. imports and exports of AI and generative AI technologies and R&D to and from China and bar U.S. investments in AI technology developed or produced in China.  The bill, which was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, had no cosponsors and no House companion at the time of introduction.

Specifically, S. 321 would prohibit U.S. persons—including any corporation or educational or research institution in the U.S. or controlled by U.S. citizens or permanent residents—from (1) exporting AI or generative AI technology or IP to China or (2) importing AI or generative AI technology or IP developed or produced in China.  In addition, the bill would bar U.S. persons from transferring AI or generative AI research to China or Chinese educational institutions, research institutions, corporations, or government entities (“Chinese entities of concern”), or from conducting AI or generative AI R&D within China or for, on behalf of, or in collaboration with such entities.

Finally, the bill would prohibit any U.S. person from financing AI R&D with connections to China.  The bill specifically prohibits U.S. persons from “holding or managing any interest in” or extending loans or lines of credit to Chinese entities of concern that conduct AI- or generative AI-related R&D, produce goods that incorporate AI or generative AI R&D, assist with Chinese military or surveillance capabilities, or are implicated in human rights abuses. Continue Reading Senator Hawley Introduces Sweeping U.S.-China AI Decoupling Bill

On January 14, 2025, the Biden Administration issued an Executive Order on “Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure” (the “EO”), with the goals of preserving U.S. economic competitiveness and access to powerful AI models, preventing U.S. dependence on foreign infrastructure, and promoting U.S. clean energy production to power the development and operation of AI.  Pursuant to these goals, the EO outlines criteria and timeframes for the construction and operation of “frontier AI infrastructure,” including data centers and clean energy resources, by private-sector entities on federal land.  The EO builds upon a series of actions on AI issued by the Biden Administration, including the October 2023 Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy AI and an October 2024 AI National Security Memorandum.Continue Reading Biden Administration Releases Executive Order on AI Infrastructure

The FTC has announced that it will hold an informal hearing on its proposed rule regarding consumer reviews and testimonials.  This informal hearing follows the Commission’s June 2023 notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on the topic.  We previously blogged about key takeaways from the NPRM, which proposed to address a variety of consumer review and testimonial practices that the Commission views as unfair or deceptive, including fake reviews, review hijacking, purchasing reviews, employee reviews, review suppression, and the use of fake indicators of social media influence. Continue Reading FTC Announces Informal Hearing on Proposed Rule Regarding Testimonials and Reviews

On December 9, 2023, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission reached a political agreement on the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (“AI Act”) (see here for the Parliament’s press statement, here for the Council’s statement, and here for the Commission’s statement). Following three days of intense negotiations, during the fifth “trilogue” discussions amongst the EU institutions, negotiators reached an agreement on key topics, including: (i) the scope of the AI Act; (ii) AI systems classified as “high-risk” under the Act; and (iii) law enforcement exemptions.

As described in our previous blog posts on the AI Act (see here, here, and here), the Act will establish a comprehensive and horizontal law governing the development, import, deployment and use of AI systems in the EU. In this blog post, we provide a high-level summary of the main points EU legislators appear to have agreed upon, based on the press releases linked above and a further Q&A published by the Commission. However, the text of the political agreement is not yet publicly available. Further, although a political agreement has been reached, a number of details remain to be finalized in follow-up technical working meetings over the coming weeks.Continue Reading EU Artificial Intelligence Act: Nearing the Finish Line

On May 1, 2023, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (“OSTP”) announced that it will release a Request for Information (“RFI”) to learn more about automated tools used by employers to “surveil, monitor, evaluate, and manage workers.”  The White House will use the insights gained from the RFI to create policy and best practices surrounding the use of AI in the workplace.Continue Reading White House Issues Request for Comment on Use of Automated Tools with the Workforce

This quarterly update summarizes key legislative and regulatory developments in the first quarter of 2023 related to Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), the Internet of Things (“IoT”), connected and autonomous vehicles (“CAVs”), and data privacy and cybersecurity.Continue Reading U.S. AI, IoT, CAV, and Privacy & Cybersecurity Legislative & Regulatory Update – First Quarter 2023

On March 23, 2023, FDA released a Framework for the use of digital health technologies in drug and biological product development (the “DHT Framework”).  This DHT Framework is on the heels of a Discussion Paper the Agency released earlier this month on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug manufacturing to seek public input on issues of critical focus (the “AI Discussion Paper”).  While both actions are significant, the AI Discussion Paper is one of CDER’s few policy statements related to the deployment of AI around regulated activities (though the Center did establish an AI steering committee in 2020).  CDRH, on the other hand, has issued several policy documents around AI-based software potentially regulated as “software as a medical device” (SaMD), including through an April 2019 discussion paper that proposed a regulatory framework for modifications to AI-based SaMD, an AI “Action Plan” for SaMD in January 2021, and guiding principles to inform the development of Good Machine Learning Practice for AI-based medical devices in October 2021.  CDER has requested public comment on the recent DHT Discussion Paper and AI Framework by May 1 and 23, respectively.Continue Reading FDA Seeks Comments on Agency Actions to Advance Use of AI and Digital Health Technologies in Drug Development

This quarterly update summarizes key legislative and regulatory developments in the third quarter of 2022 related to Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), the Internet of Things (“IoT”), connected and autonomous vehicles (“CAVs”), and data privacy and cybersecurity. 

This quarter, Congress has continued to focus on the American Data Privacy Protection Act (“ADPPA”) (H.R. 8152), which…

Continue Reading U.S. AI, IoT, CAV, and Privacy Legislative Update – Third Quarter 2022