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Politico
7 hours ago
- Business
- Politico
AI companies pitch Washington as cuts roil federal landscape
Presented by With help from Anthony Adragna The Walter E. Washington Convention Center was buzzing Tuesday as roughly 15,000 attendees swarmed the floors of the Special Competitive Studies Project's second annual AI+ Expo. Some 180 exhibitors showcased everything from fast-moving tactical drones to software that claims to decode geopolitical risk in real time. It was a snapshot of the massive wave of ambition around AI-based government contracting — dynamic, sprawling and deeply optimistic. But beneath the glitz of AI-powered warfighting tools and defense integration platforms, a more complicated story is emerging. There's a growing bifurcation in Washington's AI landscape, with defense agencies charging ahead and many civilian agencies stumbling in the wake of sweeping budget cuts and policy churn. The Pentagon is opening up newer, faster avenues for technological acquisition, confident about the growth of its purchasing budget. Meanwhile, civilian agencies are grappling with fallout from the work of the Department of Government Efficiency initiative, including staffing cuts, budget freezes, and uncertainties about their ability to buy and manage a complex new technology. 'It's really uncharted territory right now,' said Ben Edelman, who founded the AI business automation company EmberByte in Ashburn, Virginia. He attended SCSP to network and learn more about how to work with the government. 'They're still doing most of the cutting and trying to figure out what they don't want. So I imagine once they're done with that, they'll figure out what they do want,' he said. One exhibitor for a federal AI contractor put it bluntly: 'There's a lot of angst right now,' said the exhibitor, granted anonymity to speak freely. 'Everyone's asking, when will the dust settle? What will this look like after the DOGE cuts?' For one set of companies, AI looks like a way to stave off cutbacks. As the Trump administration targets the contracts of major government consulting firms, those companies are re-pitching themselves as AI implementation powerhouses. 'They're no longer just consultants. Now it's: 'We have AI products,' and they're partnering with startups and incubators, trying to evolve fast,' said the exhibitor, whose company works with consulting firms. Contractors for agencies like the Department of Health & Human Services and USAID, which have been the focus of DOGE cuts, have been particularly worried, the exhibitor said. By contrast, the Department of Defense is sending a much different signal. The exhibitors DFD talked to were convinced the boom in defense contracting for AI is just beginning. Under the Biden administration, the DOD requested $1.8 billion for AI programs in 2025; the Trump administration has yet to release details on its defense budget for next year. 'There's a lot of money going in there,' said Ron Wright, who staffed a booth of the Virginia-based business coalition National AI Association that he co-founded this year. Wright said the group has over 1,000 corporate members, many of them startups eager to contract with the DOD. On the non-defense side, Wright said his member companies were optimistic that DOGE would ultimately create government opportunities for contractors with experience in the commercial world. 'The next step for DOGE is going to be more and more analysis, using AI to improve productivity,' he said. 'It's no different from what's happening on the corporate side.' Despite the lack of clarity, walking the floor of SCSP was a testament to the perpetual optimism of the tech business world. But at least one contractor said implementing AI would require some work to build up federal contracting abilities, as agencies lose key technical talent needed to integrate AI into their operations. Joel Meyer, who leads public sector business at the enterprise AI company Domino Data Lab, said having a capable technology procurement force in the government is a 'necessity.' 'It's important that the contracting officer workforce be strengthened and trained to be able to accelerate the procurement of commercial cutting-edge technology,' said Meyer, who previously served as deputy assistant secretary for strategic initiatives at the Department of Homeland Security. 'I would very much like to see them doing more of that.' Pushback to state ai moratorium A bipartisan group of 260 state lawmakers from all 50 states is calling on Congress to drop a proposed 10-year moratorium on states enforcing their own laws to regulate artificial intelligence. 'The sweeping federal preemption provision in Congress's reconciliation bill would also overreach to halt a broad array of laws elected officials have already passed to address pressing digital issues,' the lawmakers wrote in the letter Tuesday. Their push follows a mid-May effort from 40 state attorneys general who also called on Congress to jettison the moratorium from the megabill, which passed the House last month. The state lawmaker letter comes as senators prepare arguments under the so-called 'Byrd bath', a process for determining if provisions in the party-line reconciliation bill have a budgetary effect or have to be dropped. GOP senators are largely supportive of the moratorium but are skeptical it will survive the Byrd rule. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) hailed the new bipartisan push on the Senate floor Tuesday. 'These state leaders are right: This provision would be devastating for our country,' Markey said. Palantir pushes back Palantir is pushing back on a report from The New York Times that the data analysis and technology firm is working with the Trump administration to gather information on Americans. 'Palantir never collects data to unlawfully surveil Americans, and our Foundry platform employs granular security protections. If the facts were on its side, the New York Times would not have needed to twist the truth,' the company wrote in a post on X Tuesday. Trump signed an executive order in March calling on federal agencies to expand efforts to share data across the government, raising concern doing so might expand surveillance abilities to new heights. The Times reported that the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon are working with Palantir, while the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service are in talks with the company. The New York Times did not respond to request for comment. post of the day THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS Stay in touch with the whole team: Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@ Steve Heuser (sheuser@ Nate Robson (nrobson@ and Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@
Politico
13-05-2025
- Business
- Politico
A decade of AI rules on ice?
Presented by WASHINGTON WATCH In a move that could dramatically reshape artificial intelligence oversight nationwide, Republicans have included a sweeping 10-year ban on state and local AI regulation in the budget reconciliation bill the House Energy and Commerce Committee unveiled late Sunday, POLITICO's Mohar Chatterjee and Anthony Adragna report. The proposal is a concession to the tech industry and sets the stage for a fierce battle with state regulators and the Senate. What the moratorium says: The proposed bill prohibits state and local governments from enforcing 'any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.' The proposal lands amid growing tensions between federal lawmakers and aggressive state regulators, particularly in California, as tech giants lobby Washington to preempt the state's more muscular AI rules. Tech industry response has been mixed. Zach Lilly, deputy director for state and federal affairs for tech lobbying group NetChoice, celebrated the provision,calling the language 'incredibly exciting' in a post on social media platform X. But Brad Carson, president of the AI policy group Americans for Responsible Innovation, wrote in an email, 'Tying the hands of lawmakers when it comes to taking on big tech could have catastrophic consequences for the public, for small businesses, and for young people online.' Byrd rule: The provision will likely hit a hitch in the upper chamber due to the Byrd law, which requires reconciliation packages to focus strictly on budgetary matters like federal spending, revenues and the debt limit. House E&C aides defended the provision today as necessary for a $500 million technology upgrade, including AI implementation, at the Commerce Department. The moratorium was championed by committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) as a broader priority, the aides said. Sign from the Senate: It's unclear whether federal AI preemption will pass via reconciliation, but the House move to include it signals it's a live-wire issue this Congress. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), ranking member of the Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee, said in a statement that the ban gives 'Big Tech' free rein to 'take advantage of children and families. It is a giant gift to Big Tech and once again shows that Republicans care more about profits than people.' WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Artificial intelligence played a role in the first U.S.-born pope's name choice, NBC News reports. No, he didn't ask ChatGPT what his papal name should be. Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost chose to be Pope Leo XIV to reflect the Catholic Church's role in helping believers navigate the new revolution brought by AI, according to the report. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Danny Nguyen at dnguyen@ Carmen Paun at cpaun@ Ruth Reader at rreader@ or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@ Want to share a tip securely? Message us on Signal: Dannyn516.70, CarmenP.82, RuthReader.02 or ErinSchumaker.01. POLICY PUZZLE The House Ways and Means Committee hopes AI can stem Medicare waste, fraud and abuse and find savings for its big tax cut package, Ruth reports. The panel released on Monday its long-awaited 389-page bill that includes tax cuts and some increases. In addition to the tax policies, there are some changes for Medicare. Chief among them is a directive for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to deploy AI to identify incorrect payments and get back any money wrongly sent out to providers under Medicare. The directive would enable Kennedy to contract with an AI vendor or data scientists to roll out the technology and calls on the HHS secretary to reduce the improper payment rate of $31 billion a year by half or explain why he wasn't able to do so. Other changes include reducing eligibility for Medicare, including removing any coverage for undocumented immigrants and opening up the use of health savings accounts to more Medicare patients. The panel is expected to mark up its tax provisions starting today.
Politico
17-03-2025
- Business
- Politico
The UAE courts the media to build its tech brand
With help from Anthony Adragna The United Arab Emirates has spent the better part of the last 20 years reinventing itself as a tech hub. Now it's aiming for a broader role on the world stage — and its next play is for the media. Last week, Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Butti Al Hamed, chairman of the UAE National Media Office, gathered about 150 journalists and Washington personalities in the Ritz-Carlton in downtown D.C. to unveil 'BRIDGE,' a high-profile global media initiatives that will 'empower the next generation of storytellers, invest in ethical AI, champion press freedoms, and ensure that integrity remains at the core' of global news. It's the latest of a host of recent events the UAE has hitched to big global trends. In December, Eric Trump and now-Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff spoke at Bitcoin MENA, a crypto conference held in capital city Abu Dhabi. Last month Dubai hosted the 2025 World Governments Summit featuring Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp, CNN CEO Mark Thompson and, via video call, Elon Musk. At the BRIDGE launch event at Washington's Ritz-Carlton, waiters passed out dates and strong coffee before the attendees sat down for a presentation on the summit, which Al Hamed billed as 'an ambitious new global platform' where government and media industry leaders could 'set the agenda for the future.' He said a summit would be paired with a nonprofit foundation and hoped to foster media startups. The plan was short on details, such as who would be at the summit or why, specifically, American journalists should attend. But it also seemed completely plausible, given the UAE's role as a node in the global economy, and its rising influence on the American tech industry — including the Emirati MGX fund that backed the Stargate AI infrastructure plan announced from the White House. BRIDGE also has a producer with a track record of bringing durable, landmark events to ambitious Gulf states: producer Richard Attias. Attias, born in Morocco, served as executive producer of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland for about 15 years. He also was CEO of Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative, and produced more than 1000 events, including the Clinton Global Initiative and the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which he co-produced. DFD asked Attias what the goal of BRIDGE was, and he framed it as a helping hand to a struggling industry. 'The challenges coming from AI technologies and all this fake news and the social media which are not really under control, could really have some collateral damage,' he said. 'So we said, what can we do? How can we help the media industry?' Gulf watchers said a splashy international media summit would serve another aim: training the world's attention on the UAE's rapid transformation into a tech powerhouse. 'The country is investing massively in digital infrastructure to become a global hub for the AI and post-oil economy — so I'm not surprised they want to take that further into the media sector,' said political scientist Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a Dubai-based nonresident senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center. Joshua Jahani, managing director of the New York-based Jahani and Associates investment bank that has worked with UAE sovereign wealth funds, told me he saw a giant media event like BRIDGE as a brand-building exercise. 'The UAE has taken materially successful steps to diversify its economy through international tech investments and domestic tech investments,' he said. Now, media was a key component. 'They have to be able to get the story out.' The UAE is not the only Gulf country to try to cultivate global media brands as it builds out its tech sector. It's part of a regional trend, Dania Thafer, executive director of the Gulf International Forum, told me. Web Summit Qatar held its conference last month, featuring CNBC and The Wall Street Journal | Barron's Group as media partners. And yet, there is a contradiction at the heart of the UAE's scheme to plant a flag in the global media conversation: it's an autocratic state with limited freedom of speech. The U.S. State Department has found that the UAE imposes 'serious restrictions on free expression and media, including censorship' and — ironically for a would-be tech power — 'serious restrictions on internet freedom.' Reporters Without Borders ranks the UAE 160th of 180 in world press freedom, behind India but ahead of Russia. Asked about censorship, Attias said, 'I cannot comment, because I'm not aware at all about that.' Jim Krane, an energy research fellow at the Baker Institute at Rice University, said he visits the UAE with university students and cautions them to avoid posting negative commentary online. 'I always tell them if you have anything outrageously negative to say, wait till you get home,' he said. 'It's a great launchpad for covering the region, but start looking inward at corruption or ruling family issues and you can wear out your welcome pretty easily.' He believes he experienced censorship himself after he chronicled his time living in the UAE as a reporter in the 2009 'City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism.' 'It sold well in Dubai the first two years when it was out, but then when I would go to bookstores they would tell me they would not sell it unless it was being asked for by name, and then they told me they were not allowed to sell it,' Krane said. (Abdulla, the political scientist, said he was a friend of Krane's and had been able to find the book in Dubai stores.) BRIDGE will be held in Abu Dhabi in December 2025, and the attendee list is far from clear. But in a world where many countries, the U.S. included, are seeing press freedom curtailed in the interest of business-minded leaders, the UAE might again be on trend. 'The lack of media freedom is outweighed by the access for investment, and it's just a great place to be, to cover an interesting part of the world that's getting wealthier and wealthier,' Krane said. Abdulla concurred. 'Media freedom, press freedom is definitely a shortcoming, we admit it. But if you come over here, there are lots of freedoms across the board, social freedom, economic freedom,' he said. 'We over here think that is just as important as having political freedom.' Crypto fought the law... and won Bolstered by President Donald Trump's victory, some of the biggest names in the cryptocurrency industry are launching a new volley against the Securities and Exchange Commission. POLITICO's Declan Harty reports that many of the biggest players in the industry who backed President Donald Trump's candidacy are now demanding accountability from the SEC — and in some cases payback — over its investigations. That includes Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Ripple's top lawyer, Stuart Alderoty — who want the industry to shun law firms that hire former SEC employees involved in the crypto crackdown — and the billionaire Trump-backing twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who want the agency to fire anyone who handled an investigation into Gemini. The pushback could boost legislative efforts to set up new boundaries around the SEC's authority over crypto, writes Declan. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), who leads the House Financial Services Committee's digital assets panel, said demarcating who should police the market will prevent 'some of the enforcement abuses we saw during the previous administration.' Inside NASA pick's finances Billionaire space enthusiast Jared Isaacman released his financial disclosures ahead of his Senate confirmation process to lead NASA — revealing a sprawling web of financial interests. Chief among his assets is more than $316 million in Shift4 Payments, which provides payment processing technology. Isaacman, the founder and CEO Shift4, will resign from his corporate posts once confirmed, according to his ethics agreement. He also reports modest stakes in major tech companies such as Alphabet Inc.; Amazon; Netflix; Paypal; Rivian; Nvidia; Tesla; Apple and Microsoft, among others, which Isaacman said he will divest once confirmed. A group of seven Republican governors have urged swift confirmation of Isaacman to lead NASA, though his confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled. Trump announced his pick for NASA in December. The Senate Commerce Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when it might schedule a confirmation hearing for Isaacman. POST OF THE DAY THE FUTURE IN ANOTHER FIVE(ISH) LINKS Stay in touch with the whole team: Derek Robertson (drobertson@ Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@ Steve Heuser (sheuser@ Nate Robson (nrobson@ Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@ and Christine Mui (cmui@
