Senator Ted Cruz advocates for the Take It Down Act at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. in June 2024. Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg-- Getty Images "AI tools rapidly infiltrated peoples’ lives in 2024, but AI lawmaking in the U.S. moved much more slowly. While dozens of AI-related bills were introduced this Congress—either to fund its research or mitigate its harms—most got stuck in partisan gridlock or buried under other priorities. In California, a bill aiming to hold AI companies liable for harms easily passed the state legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom." "This inaction has some AI skeptics increasingly worried. “We’re seeing a replication of what we’ve seen in privacy and social media: of not setting up guardrails from the start to protect folks and drive real innovation,” Ben Winters, the director of AI and data privacy at the Consumer Federation of America, tells TIME." READ MORE
The Senate bill was co-sponsored by Ted Cruz and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) and passed the Senate unanimously by voice vote. Was originally included in the House appropriations bill that was tanked by Elon Musk earlier. Removed from the final bill that passed. "Take it Down" is now part of another bill in the House introduced by Tom Cole (R-Okla).