White House relies on existing laws to regulate AI

Can existing laws take on AI? Trump is betting on it.

The Trump administration is relying on existing criminal and civil laws to hold artificial intelligence developers accountable in an age of unpredictable AI agents. But legal experts are uncertain whether this will be enough.

President Trump’s so-called “Super Intelligence (SI) Force” argues it can create standards for AI firms with laws already on the books under the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

“People want action now,” law professor Chinmayi Sharma told The Hill. But she said there isn’t a clear consensus among the legal and tech community to “confidently say exactly the laws” needed to manage AI’s risks.

The legal questions surrounding AI have come into sharp focus in the wake of a series of recent cybersecurity incidents.

Members of the Trump administration’s new “Super Intelligence (SI) Force,” including Federal Trade Commission chair Andrew Ferguson, are already using the government’s consumer protection authority.

“This is an area tailor-made for the FTC,” another source told us.

But others in the tech law space are leaving the open door open for new laws based on AI’s unique traits.

Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter , we’re Julia Shapero and Miranda Nazzaro — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.

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How policy will be impacting the tech sector now and in the future:

Americans likely to associate tech CEOs, even fake ones, with GOP: Poll

Americans are more likely to assume the executives heading up the largest technology firms are Republican, marking a drastic shift in perception of what was once known as a liberal Silicon Valley, according to a new poll. In a new poll published by Politico on Monday, American respondents were asked about eight current or former CEOs of technology firms, and for all but former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, more respondents believed …

China is pushing back against the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) order to remove products from Chinese AI startup DeepSeek from government systems, warning of potential retaliation. A DHS order, which dates to July but was published to the Federal Register on Monday, said DeepSeek’s AI models present “multiple threat vectors,” and ordered them to be removed from federal agency AI systems and …

Musk endorses Paxton in Texas Senate race

Tech mogul Elon Musk has formally endorsed Republican Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race after bankrolling his campaign for several weeks. The tech billionaire and one-time trillionaire has spent more than $150 million on Paxton’s candidacy as the lone donor to Texas PAC, a political action committee supporting Paxton. In a post to the social platform X — which Musk owns — Tuesday, Musk encouraged Texans to get out and support …

Musk ordered Starlink slowdown in Ukraine: WSJ

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of Starshield, the military version of Starlink internet, which Ukraine said hampered its ability to respond to Russian attacks, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter. The disruption impacted Ukraine’s drones, airplanes and helicopters, a source familiar with the matter previously told The Hill. Musk initially said …

News we’ve flagged from t he intersection of tech and other topics:

SpaceX reports first profit as public company, revenue jumps 161 percent ( Wall Street Journal )

Joel Kaplan leaving Meta after 15 years as policy chief ( Axios )

Branch out with other reads on The Hill:

Former OpenAI worker accused of bugging conference room planned travel to Saudi Arabia: Prosecutors

A former OpenAI employee accused of bugging the company’s offices was planning to leave the U.S. for Saudi Arabia when he was arrested earlier this month, according to federal prosecutors. Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national who worked as an engineer at OpenAI, was arrested in early October for allegedly hiding a recording device in the AI firm’s San Francisco offices. In a court filing Sunday, prosecutors argued …

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