Digital Content

This week, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and the nonprofit Fairplay released model legislation for a People-First Model Chatbot Bill. The People-First Chatbot Bill intends to give lawmakers a straightforward approach to address the harms caused by artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot products developed and deployed by tech companies with little oversight or transparency.

The Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown has been meticulously documented through smartphones—most recently, in the anonymous bystander videos of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shooting Renee Good in Minneapolis (MN). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), under President Trump, has argued that recording and publishing images of its officers while on operations is a crime that threatens officials’ safety.

Congress is currently considering legislation which would require operators of smartphone app stores (namely Apple for iOS and Google with Android) to verify the age of all users as a pre-condition of using any individual app. In other words, rather than have each alleged problematic app be responsible for verifying the age of their respective customers, this legislation would have the federal government shift the burden—and, by extension, the assumption of full liability for the actions of third parties over which they have no control—onto app stores.

Before President Trump returned to the White House in January, the titans of the tech industry went all out to win him over with inauguration donations and pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago.

I tried out all the major chatbots for that experiment, and I discovered each had its own personality. Anthropic’s Claude was studious and a bit prickly. Google’s Gemini was all business. Open A.I.’s ChatGPT, by contrast, was friendly, fun and down for anything I threw its way. ChatGPT also had “voice mode,” which allowed it to chat aloud, in a natural humanlike cadence, with everyone in my family, including my young daughters. My takeaway from putting ChatGPT in charge of my household was that generative A.I.

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) signed into law a new bill aimed at regulating artificial intelligence companies and requiring them to write, publish and follow safety plans. Starting Jan. 1, 2027, any company with more than $500 million in revenue that develops a large AI system will have to publish and follow protocols aimed at preventing critical harm from the AI models and report any serious breaches or else face fines.

President Trump's executive order targeting state AI laws faces long odds in the courts, setting the stage for the real battle

TikTok signed agreements with three major new investors to help form an American version of TikTok, bringing it one step closer to completing a deal to keep the app operating in the United States. The agreements do not mean that a deal for an American version of TikTok is done, as these investors would form only 45 percent of the new ownership. It’s not clear where the rest of the deal stands.

Sens Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ashley Moody (R-FL) and Peter Welch (D-VT) introduced the Sunset Section 230 Act. Section 230 was created in 1996, as a part of the Communications Decency Act, to allow then-fledgling social media companies to grow without fear of lawsuits. Those days have long since passed, as these companies are now some of the most powerful in the history of the world.

Rep Harriet Hageman (R-WY) introduced the Sunset to Reform Section 230 Act to force Congress to reform the broad authorities it has granted to Big Tech. To facilitate the Internet revolution, Congress enacted Section 230 to protect the tech companies and free speech of users, a noble and necessary balance that is still needed today.