1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:04,280 Thanks to our amazing community members like you, we've reached 2 00:00:04,280 --> 00:00:08,880 the top 15 of Spotify's video podcasts, the top 10 audio 3 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:12,280 podcasts on both Apple and Spotify for the tech category, 4 00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:15,800 so you all make this possible. If you want to support us more, 5 00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:20,280 check out our Patreon. That's patreon.com/stage 0 News 6 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:24,920 so we can keep this free and open for you to enjoy. 7 00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:28,040 Something interesting happened the other day. 8 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:31,760 I was looking through our stats on Spotify and Apple Podcasts 9 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:37,400 and I noticed that about 55% of you are not subscribed to the 10 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:39,760 show. That means 45% of you are 11 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:43,000 subscribed and I really do appreciate your support for the 12 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:47,520 other 55% of you are awesome. But I'm going to ask you for a 13 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:48,960 favor. Could you please hit the 14 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:51,200 subscribe button? It'll take you one second. 15 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:54,760 I'm going to promise you 10 years of this podcast for free, 16 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:57,040 No pay walls. I'm not going to charge you 17 00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:00,320 anything ever, but I'm going to give you 10 years of this show 18 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:01,480 for free. I've already been doing it for 19 00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:04,000 five years and I plan on doing it for 10 more. 20 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:07,040 And the only way that we can continue doing this is with your 21 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:09,800 support. So one second of your time to 22 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:12,880 hit the subscribe button right now would help the show 23 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:15,200 tremendously. Thank you so much. 24 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:21,440 President Trump cited an executive order on Thursday that 25 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,720 tells states to step aside on AI. 26 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:28,000 The order blocks states from enforcing their own AI 27 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,920 regulation and replaces that patchwork with what the White 28 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:37,560 House calls a single national framework for AI. 29 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:42,080 That is a massive policy shift and it happened in the Oval 30 00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:45,320 Office with venture capitalists standing right behind the 31 00:01:45,320 --> 00:01:47,640 president. This one stopped me in my 32 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:49,640 tracks. I was like, what is going on 33 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:51,920 here? It looks like the industry is 34 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:55,280 taking over the White House. Now. 4 states have already 35 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:57,920 passed AI laws. Colorado, California, Utah, and 36 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:00,080 Texas all have rules on the books. 37 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:03,920 So what happens to those laws now? 38 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,600 The executive order creates A litigation task force inside the 39 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:11,320 Justice Department specifically designed to sue states over 40 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:14,720 their AI laws. We're going to cover how this 41 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:18,440 order works, who is behind it and why Republicans are fighting 42 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:21,560 each other over it and whether it will survive the courts. 43 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:25,080 And we'll get right into that after this very short break. 44 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:29,200 Now, Trump just gave tech companies a federal shield 45 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:31,920 against state oversight. The executive order dropped 46 00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:35,080 December 11th, and it carries real enforcement teeth. 47 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:38,800 Attorney General Pam Bondi now has orders to build an AI 48 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:42,400 litigation task force. Now, that task force has one job 49 00:02:42,920 --> 00:02:46,600 to sue states. The signing ceremony in the Oval 50 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:49,680 Office told you everything you needed to know about who wanted 51 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:52,000 this. David Sachs stood next to the 52 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:53,760 president. And Sachs is a venture 53 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:56,160 capitalist and the White House crypto and AI czar. 54 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,600 Now, another tech investor and podcaster was there. 55 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:03,600 Tech Senator Ted Cruz rounded out the group. 56 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:07,000 Now, hold on to that detail. The people celebrating this 57 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:10,800 order are not consumer advocates or state attorneys generals. 58 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:14,120 They are from Silicon Valley. Money. 59 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:16,680 Here is what the order actually does. 60 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:19,920 It directs the Justice Department to challenge state AI 61 00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:22,080 laws in court. It tells the Federal Trade 62 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:24,160 Commission and the Federal Communications Commissions to 63 00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:27,440 work with the DOJ to circumvent what the White House calls 64 00:03:27,640 --> 00:03:30,600 onerous state and local regulations. 65 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:35,840 It threatens to withhold federal broadband funding from states 66 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:39,280 that pass AI laws the administration doesn't like. 67 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:44,760 That is a funding penalty, which is a serious lever from the top. 68 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:46,400 Now. Commerce Secretary Howard 69 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:50,040 Lutnick now has to study which states might lose that money 70 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:52,240 now. Sachs offered one carve out 71 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:55,240 during the ceremony. Child safety regulations stay in 72 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:57,440 place. The administration will not push 73 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:01,560 back on state laws designed to protect kids from EI harms. 74 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:05,040 Sachs also wrote on social media that the order does not mean the 75 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:07,760 administration will challenge every state AI law. 76 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:12,000 Now that sounds reasonable until you realize the order gives the 77 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:16,399 executive branch unilateral power to decide which state laws 78 00:04:16,519 --> 00:04:20,760 count as onerous. Now, there is no definition, no 79 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:22,040 list. The White House picks the 80 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:24,640 targets. A quick definition here, though. 81 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:29,320 When policy people say preemption, they actually mean 82 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:31,480 the federal government overriding state authority. 83 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:33,600 That is what this order attempts to do. 84 00:04:33,840 --> 00:04:36,520 The question is whether an executive order can actually do 85 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:39,880 that. Legal experts say no Brad Carson 86 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:42,000 runs Americans for Responsible Innovation. 87 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:45,240 He called the order in attempt to push through unpopular and 88 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:48,880 unwise policy. He predicted it will hit a brick 89 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:51,560 wall in the courts. Now that changes all these 90 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:53,960 stakes. This is not a set of law. 91 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:56,480 It's a fight in the courts right now. 92 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:01,000 And here is a pretty key point here. 93 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:03,320 Congress already already rejected this. 94 00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:08,120 In July, the Senate voted nearly unanimously to remove a 10 year 95 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:11,480 moratorium on state IEI regulations from Trump's 96 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:15,280 domestic policy bill. Republicans joined Democrats. 97 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:19,040 The moratorium died. Then Republican lawmakers tried 98 00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:22,440 again, pushing AI preemption into the National Defense 99 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:25,560 Authorization Act. That also failed. 100 00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:31,040 The executive order is attempt #3 now that is the key. 101 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:34,400 When the legislative branch says no twice, the executive branch 102 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:36,880 does does it anyway, executive orders it. 103 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:38,880 This is not a clean partisan fight. 104 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:42,360 Republicans are on both sides. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis 105 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:44,600 called the idea a subsidy to Big tech. 106 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:47,560 He wrote that denying people the ability to channel these 107 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:50,880 technologies through self government constitutes federal 108 00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:54,120 overreach and let's technology companies run rampant. 109 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:57,600 That is a conservative Republican governor attacking A 110 00:05:57,600 --> 00:05:59,480 conservative Republican president. 111 00:05:59,880 --> 00:06:02,840 Steve Bannon went further on his War Room podcast. 112 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:06,520 He said we have more regulations about launching a nail salon on 113 00:06:06,520 --> 00:06:09,160 Capitol Hill than we have on the Frontier Labs. 114 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:11,960 We have no earthly idea what they're doing. 115 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:15,880 So what do we know? Right now, though, the MAGA 116 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:20,040 Coalition is fractured on this. The tech industry wanted this 117 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:23,040 very badly. Open AI, Google, and the venture 118 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:26,200 firm Anderson Horowitz have all lobbied to limit state 119 00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:29,280 regulations. AI companies have been opening 120 00:06:29,280 --> 00:06:31,880 offices near the Capitol and launching campaigns through a 121 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:36,160 super PAC, with at least $100 million earmarked for the 2026 122 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:40,440 midterm elections. Sam Altman, the CEO of Open AI, 123 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:44,240 has argued the navigating 50 different state regulations 124 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:46,160 would slow innovation and hurt America. 125 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:49,440 In the AI race with China, that's how they frame it. 126 00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:53,640 National security versus state rights A critics see it 127 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:57,360 differently. Sasha Hayworth runs the Tech 128 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:00,240 Oversight project. She said we are in a fight to 129 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:03,720 determine who will benefit from AI, big Tech, CE, OS or the 130 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:06,960 American people. Democratic Senator Ed Markey 131 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:09,960 called the order in early Christmas present for his CEO 132 00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:12,600 billionaire buddies. He called it irresponsible, 133 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:16,240 short sighted in an assault on state's ability to safeguard 134 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:19,520 their constituents. Hundreds of organizations signed 135 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:22,560 letters to Congress last month opposing the idea of blocking 136 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:25,920 state AI regulations. Tech employee unions, consumer 137 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:28,800 protection, nonprofits, education institutions. 138 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:32,040 The opposition is very broad now. 139 00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:34,360 What have states actually done here? 140 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:37,880 4 states passed laws setting rules for AI across the private 141 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:40,520 sector. Those laws limit the collection 142 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:43,640 of certain personal information and require more transparency 143 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:47,120 from companies. And beyond those broader rules, 144 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:51,200 many states have regulated specific AI uses, banning 145 00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:55,880 defects, elections, prohibiting AI generated non consensual 146 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:01,280 videos, putting guardrails on government use of AI. 147 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:04,720 Those laws now face potential federal challenge. 148 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:08,880 Now the legal question comes down to one word, authority. 149 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:12,080 Mackenzie Arnold directs U.S. policy at the Institute for Law 150 00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:14,120 and AI. She pointed out that by the 151 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:17,000 administration's logic, states would not be allowed to pass 152 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:20,840 Product Safety laws either. That's almost all of them affect 153 00:08:20,840 --> 00:08:22,800 companies that sell goods nationally. 154 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:27,160 That makes the order vulnerable. Courts have historically allowed 155 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:30,400 states to regulate products and business practices within their 156 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:33,919 borders, even when those businesses operate across state 157 00:08:33,919 --> 00:08:36,159 lines. The Commerce Clause argument 158 00:08:36,159 --> 00:08:40,640 cuts both ways. Now do a little recap here. 159 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:43,760 Trump signed an executive order blocking states from enforcing 160 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:46,840 their own AI regulations. The order creates a Justice 161 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:49,360 Department task force to sue those states. 162 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:54,000 They threaten federal funding if they don't comply. 163 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:58,200 It gives the White House power to decide which state laws cross 164 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:01,280 the line. Congress rejected similar 165 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:04,600 measures twice this year. Republican governors and 166 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,600 commentators oppose it alongside the Democrats. 167 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:10,480 They're in this together. They don't want this to happen. 168 00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:14,800 Tech companies and their investors 100% want this so they 169 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:18,480 can control everything that we do with AI. 170 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:21,160 Look, I'm not a conspiracy theory person. 171 00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:23,600 I don't have a tinfoil hat. I've never worn one. 172 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:26,760 But I know what money does to people. 173 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:30,640 If they can have control over the laws, they can do whatever 174 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:33,680 they want with the technology and make more money. 175 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:36,280 That's what Sam Altman wants. He's not your friend. 176 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:38,360 None of the tech billionaires are your friends. 177 00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:42,360 I'm not a politician, but anybody that runs these 178 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:46,120 companies, they have profit in mind. 179 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:50,040 They don't care about you. Now courts will likely decide 180 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:53,800 whether this survives and hopefully an executive order 181 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:58,120 does not limit states rights to do what they need to do to 182 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:03,680 protect people from AI. Hey, thank you so much for 183 00:10:03,680 --> 00:10:05,880 listening today. I really do appreciate your 184 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:07,440 support. If you could take a second and 185 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:10,400 hit the subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast 186 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:13,400 platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly 187 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:15,040 appreciate it. It helps out the show 188 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:17,680 tremendously and you'll never miss an episode. 189 00:10:17,880 --> 00:10:21,280 And each episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you 190 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:24,000 caught up quickly. And please, if you want to 191 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:30,080 support the show even more, go to patreon.com/stagezero and 192 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:32,560 please take care of yourselves and each other and I'll see you 193 00:10:32,560 --> 00:10:33,040 tomorrow.