Ted Cruz AI bill could let firms bribe Trump to avoid safety laws, critics warn

Critics are slamming Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) new AI policy framework, which they claim would give the White House unprecedented authority to allow Big Tech companies to make "sweetheart" deals with the Trump administration to void laws designed to protect the public from reckless AI experiments.

Under the framework, Cruz calls for a "light-touch" regulatory approach to "advance American leadership" in AI and ensure that "American values" are at the heart of the world's leading technology—not Chinese values.

Unsurprisingly, the framework requires blocking "burdensome" state AI regulations, as well as foreign ones. Cruz unsuccessfully helped push for a similar decadelong moratorium on state AI laws as part of Republicans' "big beautiful" budget bill. And more recently, he lost a bid to punish states for regulating AI, ultimately voting against his own measure in the face of overwhelming bipartisan opposition.

As the first step toward limiting AI regulations to prioritize innovation, Cruz announced the SANDBOX Act—which is shorthand for "Strengthening Artificial intelligence Normalization and Diffusion By Oversight and eXperimentation."

If passed, the SANDBOX Act would let AI companies apply to temporarily avoid enforcement of federal laws that could limit their testing of new AI products. As part of the application, companies would be asked to detail known risks or harms and any steps that could be taken to mitigate harms, as well as outline benefits that could outweigh harms.

Each agency in charge of enforcing each law would then weigh potential harms, with enforcement to be modified based on how much of the application each agency approves.

However, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) would have the power to overrule decisions from independent agencies dedicated to consumer protection, alarming critics who fear AI companies could bribe officials through political donations to void laws.

Ultimately, federal agencies and the OSTP could grant two-year moratoriums on enforcement of AI laws to enable AI experiments on the public, which can be renewed up to four times for a maximum of 10 years. The bill also prompts Congress to make permanent any "successful" moratoriums found to benefit the US, Cruz's one-pager said. After its passage, Cruz expects to introduce more laws to support his framework, likely paving the way for similar future moratoriums to be granted to block state laws.