ACT Welcomes AI Framework from the White House

WASHINGTON, D.C. – ACT | The App Association (ACT) appreciates several aspects of the artificial intelligence (AI) framework and acknowledges that most of the work remains to be done to get the details right.

“We are encouraged to see that several parts of the AI framework seek a reasonable balance between protecting children, parents, and consumers and empowering innovators to deliver the AI future we all want,” said Morgan Reed, president, ACT. “With more than 1,400 legislative proposals in states, ACT’s members are facing a tidal wave of conflicting regulations. A federal preemptive framework is key to stemming this tide and maintaining American AI leadership.

“We are especially pleased to see that the framework endorses a privacy protective approach to age assurance for services likely to be accessed by minors. This guidance clearly steers away from overly broad and intrusive proposals like the App Store Accountability Act, which would saddle every brick-and-mortar business with an app with unnecessary collection of sensitive personal data and exposure to crushing liability. The Parents Over Platforms Act is a better fit for the guardrails laid out in the AI Framework.

“The principles outlined in this framework should work hand-in-hand with development of a federal privacy law that preempts state laws of similar scope and purpose. The existing patchwork of state privacy laws demonstrates the urgent need for a comprehensive national standard to provide clear consumer protection along with flexibility for small businesses that are turning AI science fiction into business realities for their customers and clients.” 

Positive provisions in the proposal:

• Enabling Innovation and Ensuring American AI Leadership: Removing unnecessary and outdated barriers to innovation is even more crucial for small business AI innovators than for their larger rivals. State laws that conflict and impose compliance burdens without consumer or competition benefits should take a back seat to a federal framework that balances risk-based protections with incentives to create, deploy, and use world-leading AI across all industry sectors.
• Protecting Children and Empowering Parents: This objective clearly outlines that parents should be at the center of federal policies that relate to child safety. This aligns with ACT’s position that legislation should not rob parents of their ability to guide their children’s device use and experiences online.
• Safeguarding and Strengthening American Communities: The framework specifically supports legislation to “streamline permitting so that data centers can generate power on-site, enhancing grid reliability.” ACT members need federal policies that enable access to data centers and other infrastructure that is critical to their ability to deliver cutting edge products and services to American consumers and clients.
• Educating Americans and Developing an AI-Ready Workforce: The rapid pace of AI evolution is changing job descriptions and roles and with these developments come major workforce adjustments. But they also bring massive new opportunities for American workers to succeed and be even more productive in their careers. Federal policy must support these adjustments and opportunities with resources for training, education, and workforce development.

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About ACT | The App Association:
ACT is a global trade association for small and medium-sized technology companies. Our members are entrepreneurs, innovators, and independent developers within the global app ecosystem that engage with verticals across every industry. We work with our members to promote a policy environment that rewards and inspires innovation while providing resources that help small businesses raise capital, create jobs, and continue to build incredible technology.