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As AI colonizes every aspect of American lifeState legislatures across the country are racing to keep housing costs from rising even higher.
But now that work may be in jeopardy due to an executive order by President Donald Trump, which is feared Protect your partners and donors in the AI industry from state efforts to regulate them,
On Thursday the President… Signed an order directing federal agencies to take action against “onerous laws” on AIWhich also includes the threat of stopping funding.
“To win [against our adversaries]AI companies in the United States should be free to innovate without burdensome regulation. But excessive state regulation thwarts this imperative,” reads the order,
“My Administration must work with Congress to ensure that there is one minimally burdensome national standard – not 50 inconsistent state standards.”
State regulators and civil rights groups reacted with outrage. California Governor Gavin Newsom said, “President Trump and David Sachs aren’t making policy – they’re making fraud.” Mention of Trump’s AI advisor,
To increase transparency and prevent “algorithmic discrimination,” thirty-eight different states have enacted laws regulating AI during this year.
In American industries, AI already helps decide who gets a job interview, a home loan, or even some types of medical care. Yet research shows that it often suffers from gender and racial biases and not all of its decisions are accurate.
Many state and local officials are taking action to regulate the use of AI in housing and real estate, fearing it could allow landlords to raise prices or engage in covert discrimination under the veil of ‘neutral’ computerized calculations.
Take RealPage, a Texas-based software company that provides real-time price recommendations to landlords based on vast troves of confidential data about other rental deals.
Critics called this a form of illegal “algorithmic collusion”, which allowed landlords to effectively “collude” in setting rental prices as high as possible. Last month the company reached a legal settlement with the US Justice Department.Consent to stop using real-time data.
Officials in Jersey City, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Diego and portland, oregon Is there now banned the practice There are plans to set fares based on AI recommendations and many states are also set to follow the same.
last year, Colorado passes a statewide bill to prevent AI-powered discriminationAlthough lawmakers now have Its implementation was delayed After intense lobbying from the tech industry. New York has also banned algorithmic fare collusion.
It is not yet clear whether Trump will use his new executive order to push back on these specific laws. The order exempts state AI laws related to “child safety protections” as well as “other matters to be determined,” giving the White House a lot of leeway.
Supporters, including representatives of the tech and real estate industries, say a patchwork of varying state laws could hinder technological progress and create huge compliance costs for companies.
But civil rights groups are worried. “The federal government has failed to act [against AI]”Nikitra Bailey of the National Fair Housing Alliance recently told Politico“Any efforts to weaken state-led AI protections will worsen the fair and affordable housing crisis,
“We discourage the Trump administration from haphazardly issuing an executive order on AI that would favor big tech and investors over the American people.”
In fact, Trump has a very close relationship with AI giants like ChatGate maker OpenAI and hardware maker Nvidia. Many tech giants have donated to his inauguration fund, attended his fundraising dinner for the new White House Ballroom, or Attended state banquets abroad with him,
“President Trump’s unlawful executive order is nothing more than a brazen effort to dismantle AI protections and give tech billionaires unchecked power over the jobs, rights, and freedoms of working people,” Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO labor union, said in a statement last week in response to the executive order.
Virginia Democrat Don Baer, who co-chairs the bipartisan Congressional AI Caucus, said, “President Trump’s AI order is an attempt to dismantle responsible security reforms passed by states, which will create a chaotic Wild West environment for AI companies that will put Americans at risk. It’s a terrible idea.”
But Trump’s former adviser and MAGA high priest Steve Bannon said Sachs had “grossly misled” the President by persuading him to support “AI amnesty”.