How to Regulate the Biggest AI Risks. Really!

These are some extreme proposals! I don't believe any other industry was ever subjected to such tough rules (not even biotechnology).

The authors of this article are obsessed with the extreme worst case scenario!

"... The penalty for devastating harm cannot wait for the catastrophe to actually occur. Instead, a proven failure to maintain the required human control and supervision, or concealment of that failure, should automatically trigger conservatorship. ...

An AI statute should go further by explicitly requiring that all existing shareholder equity be zeroed out. ..." and so on.

 

Breitbart Business Digest

The United States struck a light-touch AI regulation accord with G20 members at the Innovation Ministerial, establishing America’s preferred global framework

Good news! Bravo! It would be a serious mistake to shackle machine learning & AI for reasons of hysteria and alarmism!

"The United States secured unanimous consensus from G20 members at the Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to adopt the non-binding Carolina Principles. 

The Carolina Principles
Hands-off approach: Urges governments to avoid creating new regulatory bodies or broad, AI-specific rulebooks.
Novel considerations: Recommends reserving new rules strictly for unprecedented or high-risk situations rather than treating every tech evolution as an isolated policy crisis.
Industry alignment: Backed heavily by U.S. tech executives—including leaders from OpenAI, Nvidia, Meta, and SpaceX—who argued that heavy oversight threatens global competitiveness and slows breakthrough innovation. ..." (Google Search)

The White House weekly briefing

G20 Innovation Ministerial Concludes with Consensus Statement

Germany’s Auto Giant VW and the US Ford are Losing the Race to please government climate dictates

Recommendable!

Big government and many of the elites promote and exploit the global warming hoax and climate change religion as a pretext for more socialism!

Why the US never repealed the socialist Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards (enacted in 1975) is beyond belief! President Trump are you listening!

"... In late 2025, EU leadership announced sweeping directives for reaching all-time emissions lows. One of those requirements in the passenger vehicle market requires EU-based automakers “to comply with a 90 percent tailpipe emissions reduction target, while the remaining 10 percent emissions will need to be compensated through the use of low-carbon steel Made in the Union, or from e-fuels and biofuels.”  ...

This is a classic case of government-induced malinvestment into certain lines of production. Based on the EU regulators’ decrees for a 2035 ban on the manufacturing and sale of internal combustion engines ...

Ford is now in a better position than VW in this respect, as the Trump administration has scaled back the Biden team’s more stringent Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements. But there’s still plenty to be undone. The current administration’s estimates indicate that there would be $109 billion in savings to American carmakers by loosening emissions rules. Nevertheless, the rules still require that all US-made passenger vehicles make 34.1 mpg by 2031. That’s a significant reduction from the previous administration’s demands for mpg to reach over 50 mpg. Yet, consumers’ tastes for maximizing fuel efficiency have hit a wall. ..."

Germany’s Auto Giant Is Losing the Race | The Daily Economy

This chart does not even show the big Chinese competitors

Nachhaltiges Bauen: „Klimaanlagen sollten nur da laufen, wo sie notwendig sind“. Wirklich!

Oder die Demagogie der Nachhaltigkeit! Wird wieder mal deutscher blinder Gehorsam erwartet!

Klimawahn und Umweltreligion (hier Stichwort Nachhaltigkeit) in der Bananenrepublik D!

Nachhaltiges Bauen: Wann Klimaanlagen wirklich sinnvoll sind | FAZ "Christine Lemaitre führt die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen. Mit der F.A.Z. spricht sie über die richtigen [???] Baumaterialien, unnötige Gebäudetechnik [???] und den Sinn teurer Sanierungen."

Christine Lemaitre (Quelle) Hat sie vergessen mit dem Zeigefinger zu drohen? 😊☛

White House signals it will more closely regulate AI industry possibly modeled on the FDA drug approval process. Really!

Bad news! Pray and hope that President Trump will not make this mistake!

The FDA drug approval process is slow and cumbersome etc.!

"US signals it will more closely regulate AI industry

The White House is preparing an executive order to create a vetting system for new artificial intelligence models, modeled on FDA drug approval processes, according to National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett.

The move follows Anthropic’s disclosure that its Mythos model can identify network vulnerabilities and poses potential cybersecurity risks; the Trump administration is currently testing the model across federal agencies and large tech firms before wider release.

Hassett said the vetting process would likely extend to all AI companies, not just Mythos, though it remains unclear whether the order would mandate testing or operate as a voluntary framework. The announcement represents a potential shift toward regulation for an administration that has generally favored hands-off AI policy. Separately, the Commerce Department expanded a voluntary testing program on Tuesday, with Google, Microsoft, and xAI now providing the government early access to assess their models’ security and capabilities. " (Source)

"... But in an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett confirmed that the White House is considering an order that would allow the administration to block the release of AI models deemed unsafe.

“We’re studying possibly an executive order to give a clear roadmap to everybody about how this is gonna go, and how future AIs that also potentially create vulnerabilities should go through a process so that they’re released into the wild after they’ve been proven safe — just like an FDA drug [???],” said Hassett. ..."

"... “We’re studying, possibly an executive order to give a clear roadmap to everybody about how this is going to go and how future AIs that also potentially create vulnerabilities should go through a process so that they’re released to the wild after they’ve been proven safe, just like an FDA drug [???],” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told Fox Business. ..."

White House Prepares Order to Boost AI Security, Hassett Says (behind paywall)

White House mulls tighter controls on advanced AI

Kevin Hassett (perhaps someone President Trump needs to fire?)

US Senate bill would exempt fully isolated large off-grid power loads from FERC, Department of Energy regulation

Good news (for e.g. data centers)! Keep the Feds (regulators) out!

"Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced the DATA Act of 2026 earlier this month, a proposal to exempt fully isolated power suppliers for data centers and other energy-intensive industries from federal energy regulations. The bill would remove such facilities from oversight by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy if they operate entirely off the grid."

Senate bill exempts fully isolated large loads from FERC, DOE regulation | Utility Dive "The bill affecting data centers and other energy-intensive sectors may face opposition from utilities as a threat to their revenue, according to an industry expert."

IEEE-USA SmartBrief

President Trump said he plans to roll back federal fuel-economy rules for passenger vehicles

Good news! Bravo!

CAFE is an example of horrible socialist central planning and unconstitutional!

"Under the changes, the federal government would require an average of 34½ miles a gallon for vehicles by model year 2031, down from the 50.4 miles a gallon standard set by the Biden administration.

Congress and the Trump administration this summer essentially nullified the existing mandates—known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules, or CAFE—by eliminating fines for violating them."

The Wall Street Journal What's news

Source (Chart is possibly outdated and it lacks horizontal lines)

China enforces new AI labeling requirements across major platforms

The Communist Party of China can not resist to meddle! Will this hamper further advances of ML & AI in China?

"China’s new law requiring labels for all AI-generated content took effect this week, prompting social media platforms including WeChat, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu to implement compliance features.

The regulation mandates both explicit visible labels and implicit metadata identifiers for AI-generated text, images, audio, video, and other synthetic content. Platforms now offer tools for creators to declare AI-generated content voluntarily, while also deploying detection systems to identify unlabeled AI material. The law reflects Beijing’s growing concerns about misinformation, copyright infringement, and online fraud related to AI technology, particularly deepfakes. The regulation was drafted by China’s Cyberspace Administration along with three other government ministries as part of the country’s broader AI oversight efforts."

Switzerland has a new LLM (and it’s fully open source)

Trump puts drugmakers on notice: 'Taking historic action'

Drug pricing has been so screwed up by many Western government interventions for so many decades, let's see whether President Trump can make positive and lasting difference.

The Supreme Court Is Right to Age-Gate Internet Porn. Really!

No, these states are wrong to legally require porn sites to verify the age of their visitors! It puts a lot of burden on those sites and adult visitors will be put off!

It is also quite strange and weird that a libertarian magazine (i.e. City Journal) publishes such an article with this headline!

Such state laws are an example of excessive government paternalism!

Such state laws may also have the well known adverse effect that adult consumers of porn will resort again to other means to obtain what they are looking for or worse sexual violence against women or children may increase.

Such state laws can also be seen as attempts to roll back the so called sexual revolution of the 1960s/70s. Make love not war etc.! These state laws showcase once more the tendency towards the world famous American prudishness!

Parents can and will protect their children e.g. by making sure their devices and Internet services block access to those sites. It should be primarily left to parents to protect their children from exposure to any harmful Internet content etc..

Concerns about children being exposed to porn (e.g. including perverse sexual acts etc.) are justified, but the solution of laws requiring porn sites to verify the age of their visitors is wrong!

The US Supreme Court only had to decide whether the Texas law conforms with the US constitution. This decision is not an approval of the approach to prevent harm from children.

Caveat: I did not read the entire article.

"In a 6–3 decision issued Friday in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, the Supreme Court upheld a Texas law requiring pornographic websites to verify users’ ages before granting access. With similar laws now on the books in at least 21 other states, the ruling empowers state authorities to shield children from sexually explicit online materials—and may also open the door to regulating minors’ access to social media. ..."

The Supreme Court Is Right to Age-Gate Porn "The Free Speech Coalition decision reflects a pragmatic recognition of the Internet’s contemporary dangers for children."

Texas Moves to Regulate AI. Really!

Bad news! And this law seems to be very bureaucratic and far reaching! Stifling!

And the law was introduced by a Republican!

"... What’s new: The Texas legislature is considering the proposed Texas Responsible AI Governance Act (TRAIGA). The bill would prohibit a short list of harmful or invasive uses of AI, such as output intended to manipulate users. It would impose strict oversight on AI systems that contribute to decisions in key areas like health care.

How it works: Republican House Representative Giovanni Capriglione introduced TRAIGA, also known as HB 1709, to the state legislature at the end of 2024. If it’s passed and signed, the law would go into effect in September 2025.

The proposed law would apply to any company that develops, distributes, or deploys an AI system while doing business in Texas, regardless of where the company is headquartered. It makes no distinction between large and small models or research and commercial uses. However, it includes a modest carve-out for independent small businesses that are based in the state.

The law controls “high-risk” AI systems that bear on consequential decisions in areas that include education, employment, financial services, transportation, housing, health care, and voting. The following uses of AI would be banned: manipulating, deceiving, or coercing users; inferring race or gender from biometric data; computing a “social score or similar categorical estimation or valuation of a person or group;” and generating sexually explicit deepfakes. The law is especially broad with respect to deepfakes: It outlaws any system that is “capable of producing unlawful visual material.” 

Companies would have to notify users whenever AI is used. They would also have to safeguard against algorithmic discrimination, maintain and share detailed records of training data and accuracy metrics, assess impacts, and withdraw any system that violates the law until it can achieve compliance.

The Texas attorney general would investigate companies that build or use AI, file civil lawsuits, and impose penalties up to $200,000 per violation, with additional fines for ongoing noncompliance of $40,000 per day.

The bill would establish a Texas AI Council that reports to the governor, whose members would be appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor, and state legislative leaders. The council would monitor AI companies, develop non-binding ethical guidelines for them, and recommend new laws and regulations. ..."

DeepSeek’s Open Reasoning Model, Affordable Humanoid Robots, Texas’ Restrictive AI Law, GenAI for Electronics

Steve Forbes: Why The government War On Vaping Is Needlessly Killing People

Recommendable!

The Four-Day Work Week Is Decades Away. Really!

Certainly, we do not need any government mandate nor law for that! And let's not be rigid about a shorter work week (e.g. on average and flexible would also be nice).

With the rapid advances of robotics, a four-day work week may become reality in the near future.

What about life style changes? Perhaps, more people are willing to trade less work/income for more leisure/self employment etc.

The once fairly well defined distinction between full time and part-time work has become more blurred in recent times!

"... Put me down as skeptical. Some big technological innovations promise to make people more productive, but a four-day work week will not be the norm anytime soon [???]. And legislation imposing it over the next four years would harm the economy. ..."

The Four-Day Work Week Is Decades Away | Manhattan Institute Senator Bernie Sanders’ bill mandating a 32-hour week over the next few years would be harmful to the economy.

KI-Regulierung in der EU oder wie die EU weiter zurückfallt

Schön für die EU, die Ersten zu sein mit KI Regulierung! Dabei ist die EU schon hinten dran in der Entwicklung der KI, z.B. während Indien, Israel, Südkorea, Singapore, und China beschleunigen.

Die EU ist sehr gut im Eigentore schießen! 😊

KI-Regulierung: Der Teufel steckt im Detail - iwd.de Die EU reguliert künstliche Intelligenz: Rat, Kommission und Parlament einigten sich im Dezember auf den AI Act. Damit steht der Rechtsrahmen für KI auch in Deutschland – an mehreren Stellen besteht aber noch Klärungsbedarf.

Will porn websites be required to verify the age of their visitors?

This would be very counterproductive and stupid! This is a typical Big Government overreach! Somewhat comparable to e.g. the great folly o government alcohol prohibition! It reeks of government paternalism!

Yes, it is important to prevent children from easily accessing visual representations of hard core or extreme forms of sex at any time.

On the other hand, probably a significant number of adult consumers of such websites also desire e.g. anonymity and/or privacy! What e.g. about elderly adults (age > 50)? It sure would be a off putting annoyance to adult consumers if not much more!

In case the reader forgot: Pornography helps to reduce rape and mental issues related to sexuality. Some pornography might even inspire to have better and more enjoyable sex and so on. These benefits and other benefits have been known since at least the 1960s!

However, the responsibility lies primarily in the upbringing and education of children! E.g. children's smartphones and computer etc. can be setup to prevent access to such websites and much more. E.g. Internet service providers can be authorized by parents to prevent their children from accessing such sites etc. etc.

"Three of the world’s biggest porn websites face new requirements in the European Union that include verifying the ages of users, the 27-nation bloc said Wednesday, expanding the reach of its digital law designed to keep people safe on the internet.

Pornhub, XVideos and Stripchat have now been classed as “very large online platforms” subject to more stringent controls under the Digital Services Act because they each have 45 million average monthly users, according to the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch.

They are the first porn sites to be targeted by the sweeping Digital Services Act, which imposes tough obligations to keep users safe from illegal content and dodgy products. ..."

Three of the biggest porn sites must verify ages to protect kids under Europe’s new digital law

Brazillian city Porto Alegre enacts an ordinance that was written by ChatGPT

Sign of our times! What is next?

"... The experimental ordinance was passed in October in the southern city of Porto Alegre and city councilman Ramiro Rosário revealed this week that it was written by a chatbot, sparking objections and raising questions about the role of artificial intelligence in public policy.

Rosário told The Associated Press that he asked OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT to craft a proposal to prevent the city from charging taxpayers to replace water consumption meters if they are stolen. He then presented it to his 35 peers on the council without making a single change or even letting them know about its unprecedented origin.  ... The 36-member council approved it unanimously and the ordinance went into effect on Nov. 23. ..."

Brazillian city enacts an ordinance that was written by ChatGPT | AP News

France, Germany and Italy join forces to propose unified AI regulation in the EU. Really!

What is the hurry about! Big Government stay out!

You can bet that private enterprises, business associations and so forth will develop regulations themselves!

Brexit is such a blessing! The UK will wait (see my blog post here)!

France, Germany and Italy join forces to propose unified AI regulation in the EU France, Germany and Italy have agreed on a proposal to regulate AI in the European Union. It pushes for mandatory self-regulation rather than binding rules for foundational models without an initial sanctions regime.

UK will refrain from regulating AI ‘in the short term’

Good news! Bravo! Very smart! Do not shackle AI! We are at a critical juncture!

Brexit proves again and again was an excellent choice by the British people! Brexit is such a blessing!

"The UK has said it will refrain from regulating the British artificial intelligence sector, even as the EU, US and China push forward with new measures. 

The UK’s first minister for AI and intellectual property, Viscount Jonathan Camrose, said at a Financial Times conference on Thursday that there would be no UK law on AI “in the short term” because the government was concerned that heavy-handed regulation could curb industry growth. ..."

UK will refrain from regulating AI ‘in the short term’ (behind paywall, here is an alternative link) Minister tells FT conference government wants to maintain a ‘pro-innovation’ approach to the technology

The hero! Viscount Camrose Jonathan William Berry

The SEC’s Wrongheaded AI Crackdown

Recommendable!

"... But under the guise of minimizing conflicts of interest, the SEC now proposes requiring advisers and broker-dealers to write new internal procedures and to log all uses of technologies relating to predictive data analytics for agency review. If left unchallenged, the new rules would hamper the American financial industry’s world-beating innovation. ...

Those costs are almost certain to be substantial, given the proposal’s capacious definition of a covered technology—“an analytical, technological, or computational function, algorithm, model, correlation matrix, or similar method or process that optimizes for, predicts, guides, forecasts, or directs investment-related behaviors or outcomes in an investor interaction.” If computing power is involved, the proposal’s text suggests, the SEC would like to know about it. These overbearing rules will leave all but the most established, robustly resourced, and well-staffed advisers and broker-dealers at a clear disadvantage in competing for customers’ business, further entrenching the largest players and raising barriers to entry. ..."

The SEC’s Wrongheaded AI Crackdown | City Journal Federal regulators announce a plan that would hamper financial innovation.

An online-trading startup sued the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for denying its application to launch a political election-betting market

You bet, there are so many ways to bet!

"Kalshi’s lawsuit might help determine if Americans could bet significant amounts of money on whether Republicans or Democrats will capture the House or Senate. The company says its market for derivatives contracts would enable investors to hedge against political risk—in some cases with trades as big as $100 million. The CFTC declined to comment; the agency previously has been reluctant to weigh in on what it sees as a sensitive question for U.S. democracy. Several states outlaw gambling on elections, though small-stakes bets are possible through various venues."

Trading Startup Sues Regulator in Effort to Launch Election-Betting Market - WSJ Lawsuit comes after Commodity Futures Trading Commission rejected Kalshi’s election-betting proposal