{"id":4157,"date":"2026-07-12T08:05:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T03:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=4157"},"modified":"2026-07-12T08:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T03:05:27","slug":"inside-the-alternative-playbook-to-ai-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=4157","title":{"rendered":"Inside the alternative playbook to AI regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/4tCfAqWFOLaom8FZEN17Jry-Yr8=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/09\/1783626745319.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/technology\/automation-and-ai\" target=\"_blank\">AI<\/a> regulation in the U.S. over the last few months has been a frenzy. Some experts say it didn&#8217;t have to be this way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> AI companies and the government are praising each other for successful collaboration on rules for cutting-edge AI, but that view hides a scramble behind the scenes that could have been avoided.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Driving the news<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/08\/openai-gpt-trump-ban-lifted\" target=\"_blank\">OpenAI<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/30\/trump-anthropic-ai-model-fable-restrictions\" target=\"_blank\">Anthropic&#8217;s<\/a> latest, most powerful models both ended up getting nods from the government before wide release. That would have been unthinkable just months ago.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The big picture:<\/strong> The two companies now know first-hand what it&#8217;s like to release powerful models under the Trump administration&#8217;s approach to regulation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>That&#8217;s featured export control threats, licensing requirements and negotiations with a host of government agencies that are sometimes at odds. <\/li>\n<li>Other AI labs are poised to face the same process, as a cybersecurity executive order detailing standards and procedures gets implemented.  <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Flashback: <\/strong>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2023\/10\/30\/ai-executive-order-biden-transparency-safety\" target=\"_blank\">Biden-era AI executive order<\/a> required companies to share safety testing results with the government, including whether their models could be tricked into bypassing built-in safety guardrails.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The &#8220;jailbreaking&#8221; issue was the type of vulnerability Amazon flagged last month that eventually led to export controls on Anthropic.<\/li>\n<li>President Trump, vowing to pursue a deregulatory agenda on AI, scrapped that order&#8217;s reporting requirements.<\/li>\n<li>When the Trump administration&#8217;s safety concerns with Anthropic came to a head, there was no alignment with industry and government on how severe jailbreaks need to be to raise a red flag.<\/li>\n<li>Had there been a framework to assess and standardize the severity of jailbreaking or safety bypassing, export controls may have been avoided, one source familiar with the situation told Axios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying:<\/strong> The rest of the world has implemented tech privacy regulations, updated antitrust laws and passed transparency and research access measures, former Biden tech official Asad Ramzanali said.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t do any of it,&#8221; he said of the U.S., depriving the country of a strong foundation to create rules around AI today.  <\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Given where things are, this is the right thing for the companies and for the government,&#8221; he added, referring to the Trump administration&#8217;s efforts to set rules around powerful AI models. <\/li>\n<li>&#8220;But we should never have been here.&#8221; <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The government failed to recruit and retain<\/strong> technical expertise\u00a0from the outset, according to the Cato Institute&#8217;s Kevin Frazier, noting <a href=\"https:\/\/hai.stanford.edu\/assets\/files\/hai_ai-index-report-2024_chapter6.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">less than 1 percent<\/a> of AI Ph.D.s go into government.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Agencies like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Center for AI Standards and Innovation have also been &#8220;sidelined&#8221; and underfunded, said Frazier, who is also the director of the University of Texas&#8217; AI and law program.<\/li>\n<li>CAISI&#8217;s operational budget is $15 million but it needs $84 million annually to fulfill Trump&#8217;s AI action plan, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/ifp.org\/funding-for-caisi\/\" target=\"_blank\">Institute for Progress<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>&#8220;The truth is that there&#8217;s never<\/strong> been a &#8216;right&#8217; answer for how to govern AI, but there are plenty of wrong ones,&#8221; including deficient government expertise and failing to build trust among the public, Frazier said.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He argued that the government could have learned from state initiatives, pointing to examples like Oklahoma&#8217;s free AI literacy training, Utah&#8217;s regulatory sandboxes for testing AI under heightened oversight, and Massachusetts&#8217; data practices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Meanwhile,<\/strong> <strong>Congress has failed<\/strong> to pass any comprehensive AI safety legislation that could help avoid these one-off regulatory fixes, despite years of bipartisan efforts and growing popular interest in reeling in AI.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Right now, there is far too much confusion with the White House&#8217;s AI vetting process \u2014 both for the country and for our leading AI developers,&#8221; Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) told Axios. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side: <\/strong>&#8220;I thought it was a very productive process,&#8221; OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on CNBC the day after the company announced it would be doing a wide release of GPT 5.6 following government negotiations.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;This was our first time through it, so there are things we&#8217;ll learn about how to make it better next time, which we&#8217;ll get going on soon.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines:<\/strong> Former President Biden&#8217;s use of the Defense Production Act to impose mandatory disclosure requirements on AI companies was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/pro\/tech-policy\/2023\/12\/13\/gop-digs-in-on-bidens-use-of-defense-powers-for-ai\" target=\"_blank\">viewed at the time<\/a> by Republicans and industry as an overreach but, under Trump, industry still faces significant pressure to collaborate.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Trump has not invoked the DPA, and the administration says the provisions of his cyber executive order are voluntary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>But it&#8217;s clear<\/strong> that in today&#8217;s regulatory environment, with what happened to Anthropic&#8217;s Fable fresh in everyone&#8217;s minds, AI companies need to keep the government happy.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;You really want to be confident in your safety claims because otherwise the world is going to get uncomfortable very fast,&#8221; Altman said on CNBC.<\/li>\n<li>The White House said Tuesday that they did not approve or disapprove OpenAI&#8217;s decision to release a model.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The top technology leaders in the country are fully lining up behind the President&#8217;s commonsense approach,&#8221; White House spokesperson Liz Huston said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What we&#8217;re watching:<\/strong> Industry and the administration are continuing to work on the voluntary framework required by the June AI executive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/02\/trump-signs-new-ai-executive-order\" target=\"_blank\">order<\/a>. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Per the order, it&#8217;s due Aug. 1.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: This story has been updated to include a comment from the White House.<\/em><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AI regulation in the U.S. over the last few months has been a frenzy. Some experts say it didn&#8217;t have to be this way. Why it matters: AI companies and the government are praising each other for successful collaboration on rules for cutting-edge AI, but that view hides a scramble behind the scenes that could&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/4tCfAqWFOLaom8FZEN17Jry-Yr8=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/09\/1783626745319.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}