White House AI rollout exposes widening rift

The Trump White House unveiled a national AI legislative framework this week, but the proposal lacks enforcement details and has exposed deep disagreements within the Republican party on how to regulate the industry. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director Michael Kratsios said the administration wants Congress to pass a bill "as expeditiously as possible," though Republicans remain split on three core issues: whether to hold platforms liable for harms to children, how to protect creators whose work is used to train AI models, and whether to shield households from higher power bills as data centers expand. The divisions are acute—Sen. Josh Hawley called a Los Angeles court ruling against Meta and YouTube for addictive design "hugely significant" and urged a ban on AI chatbots for minors, while Rep. Kat Cammack dismissed it as merely a "level-setter" and opposed stricter liability rules. Democrats also lack consensus, with Sen. Mark Warner calling a proposal to moratorium AI data center construction "idiocy." Passage this year remains uncertain despite the administration's push.