September 2023 U.S. Tech Policy Roundup

Rachel Lau, Kennedy Patlan, and J.J. Tolentino work with leading public interest foundations and nonprofits on technology policy issues at Freedman Consulting, LLC.  US Senate AI Influence Forum, September 13, 2023 While a government shutdown looms in the month ahead, the White House and U.S. Congress were back in action in September, with a central focus on artificial intelligence (AI). A highlight of September’s congressional happenings was Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s private convening of major tech company leadership at the first of several planned AI Insight Forums in Washington, DC. The same week, the White House announced additional voluntary AI risk management commitments from eight companies, including Adobe, IBM, Nvidia, and Salesforce. This month, President Joe Biden spoke to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, emphasizing the administration’s focus on AI and America’s leadership on the technology.   After a federal appeals court in Louisiana ruled that the White House and other government officials were violating users’ First Amendment rights by encouraging technology companies to remove posts that included disinformation, the White House filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to halt the order. At the end of the month, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito extended a delay on the ruling, though the process has been muddled.  At the agency level, the Justice Department made headlines this month as it opened a three-month trial against Google, marking the first monopoly-related case to make it to trial in decades. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an antitrust…September 2023 U.S. Tech Policy Roundup