House AI Task Force Signals Bright Future for Open Source, Little Tech

Part 1

The Bipartisan House Task Force Report on Artificial Intelligence is the culmination of an almost two year fact-finding process. Featuring fifteen categories, the 273 page report provides a roadmap for where AI policy will lead in the new year, particularly as Speaker Johnson will continue to lead the House in a Republican trifecta.

At Alliance for the Future, we are particularly interested in the consequences for the open source and AI startup ecosystems. In short: the report’s findings on open source AI and small business are excellent for those trying to build something new with AI. They signal openness to continuing research, open source publishing, and little tech. They also indicate a crucial commitment to evidence-based AI policy over hypothetical fears and cultural interests.

Open Source

The report underscores the importance of open-source AI as a cornerstone of fair innovation. By encouraging transparency and collaboration, open-source models mitigate the risk of monopolization and centralization. It acknowledges the economic incentives behind regulatory capture and are looking to promote open source as a counterbalance.

Regulatory Capture

Overregulation is a significant focus of the report, particularly of the section on small business. Economists have found that regulations often impose disproportionate burdens on smaller firms, hindering their ability to compete with large, established companies. This concept is known as regulatory capture. The house identifies regulatory capture as a key concern in the small business section.

Congress aims to prevent regulatory frameworks from entrenching the dominance of incumbents, recognizing that a balanced approach is necessary to sustain innovation across the industry.

Federal Pre-Emption

The only area of engagement where we at Alliance for the Future are looking for major change is federal pre-emption. Specifically, we hope Congress will pass major federal pre-emption legislation in 2025. We believe that realistically, there are only two outcomes: either Congress will pass federal pre-emption, or the most politically lopsided states will set AI regulation for the entire country.

The report accurately acknowledges that federal preemption remains politically difficult. While national policies could help counter inconsistent state-level regulations, such as those emerging from California, the combination of jurisdictions and interests makes assembling a coalition for pre-emption difficult.

Working with George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, Alliance for the Future has published a report on a pre-emption structure that could cross partisan divides. Federal pre-emption based on research freedoms would reflect the bipartisan coalition opposing SB 1047. The uniting features of that coalition were the dual pillars of evidence-based policy and the freedom to publish AI research, along with the models that research depended on.

California Bill SB 1047 was a narrowly defeated bill that would have de-facto banned open source AI and severely harmed closed source AI, under the premise of managing hypothetical CBRN risks at a state level. This bill was opposed by a wide coalition of academics, startup founders, and bipartisan elected officials. A main point echoed by nearly all criticis was the lack of evidence for the claims made by SB 1047 authors. Consider the House Science Democrats opposition letter, later cited by Speaker Emerita Pelosi:

Informed by the defeat of SB 1047, Congress is steering away from policies driven by speculative AI risks. Instead, lawmakers are focusing on real, demonstrable threats to address the industry's needs more effectively.

We hope to build upon that moment of bipartisan agreement to create a federal pre-emption structure that can be embraced by a bipartisan supermajority.

The report also contains thorough discussion of other crucial AI policy areas, such as energy and national security, which will be covered in a later part.

Overall, the House AI Task Force Report featured excellent recommendations for open source AI and small business. It identified regulatory capture or fear-driven legislation as threats which have led to ineffective or harmful policies in the past. Most importantly, it signals an ongoing commitment to evidence-based AI policy.