Schiff: White House AI Pledge Falls Short — SkimNews
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- Schiff told Decoder that the White House's recent non-binding AI safety pledge—signed by major AI CEOs—is insufficient, noting those same companies publicly demand actual regulation while deferring to Trump in person.
- Schiff raised the Trump administration's reported retaliation against Anthropic after the company refused to allow its AI for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, calling the targeting a national security issue.
- Schiff is working with Sen. Curtis on legislation requiring AI companies to retain records of what copyrighted material was used to train their models, arguing transparency must come before any fair-use debate.
- Schiff serves as ranking member on the Senate Judiciary IP subcommittee and also sits on Privacy, Technology and the Law, and Antitrust—three panels that sit at the center of AI oversight.
- The Loper Bright Supreme Court decision ended Chevron deference, meaning new AI regulations would face immediate court challenges rather than agency interpretation—a complication Schiff acknowledged for any push to create a new AI regulator.
- Schiff said he would support impeaching Trump again over what he described as 'rampant corruption,' including campaign ads he says are paid for with taxpayer money and a White House 'triumphal arch' project now justified as an ammunition storage site.
- Schiff raised unanswered questions about whether AI played a role in Pentagon target selection during the bombing of an Iranian girls' school, calling for a congressional investigation.
Why it matters: Schiff sits on three committees that touch nearly every AI policy lever, and his comments lay out a Democratic regulatory roadmap: mandatory training-data transparency, a new federal AI agency, and congressional scrutiny of Pentagon AI use. He also previewed impeachment as a live 2026 issue, with corruption allegations—from taxpayer-funded ads to the 'triumphal arch'—framed as the trigger.
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