Tech Policy State of Play: Past, Present, Future

Recalling What’s in Reconciliation

As you know, the House passed its reconciliation bill yesterday morning. As we have detailed over the past several weeks, there is plenty included in it that intends to help America build faster. BUT, several of these items will face both policy and parliamentarian tests. In any event, House passage marks significant steps toward lower barriers and longer runways for American innovation.

• 10-year moratorium on state-level AI regulations to prevent the emergence of 50 different regulatory regimes with conflicting compliance requirements that would make it impossible for startups to scale and enterprise companies to deploy nationwide solutions

• Allowing builders to pay a fee in order to receive a streamlined review under the National Environmental Policy Act, better known as “NEPA”. 

• A new program to allow sponsors of energy projects to invest in insurance against adverse federal actions that would derail a previously favorable interaction. Meaning, if one administration gives the green light and a future administration then pulls the plug.

AI Updates

This was a huge week for AI announcements with leading companies Anthropic and Google releasing new models, and OpenAI announcing its partnership with legendary Apple designer Jony Ive in pursuit of a new class of tech hardware. While these developments are displays of technical might, and expand the imagination and capability of the user, they could soon become the center of policy debates. Here are a few we could see start to flare up.

IP and Copyright: Google’s Veo 3 generates videos with integrated sound effects, background noise, and character dialogue. The model handles real-world physics and lip syncing, creating birds with authentic singing or city streets with traffic sounds. The videos you’ve seen online are remarkable, and it will soon be hard to distinguish between AI-generated videos and those shot by humans.

Competition: OpenAI wants to develop the AI hardware product — just as Apple did with the phone. Ive and Altman have been developing an AI device that moves users away from screens. It will be fully aware of surroundings, fit in a pocket or on a desk, and serve as a "third core device" alongside laptops and phones. The question — how will this device interface with other models, product offerings from different companies, etc?

Security and Safety: Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 is now the world's best coding model, hitting all time highs on industry-standard benchmarks. More importantly, it can work continuously for hours on complex tasks that would previously require teams of engineers. Given its power, Anthropic instituted the industry's first “AI Safety Level 3” protections. These thresholds recognize potential for misuse in categories like bio weapons and cyber attack development, and the company implemented over 100 security controls to guard against sophisticated threats.

Waymo's Scale Shock

Waymo — Google's autonomous vehicle unit—now delivers over 250,000 paid robotaxi rides weekly across four American cities. Not test rides. Not demonstrations. Real customers paying real money for transportation that works.

The company just opened a 239,000 square foot factory in Mesa, Arizona that will produce tens of thousands of autonomous vehicles annually when at full capacity.

Here's the breakthrough: vehicles now drive themselves directly from the factory floor to passenger service. First rides happen within 30 minutes of rolling off the assembly line.

• Active service: Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin

• Launching this summer: Atlanta (via Uber partnership)

• 2026 expansion: Miami, Washington D.C.

• Testing in 10 additional cities this year

Elon Musk has also described Tesla’s own autonomous vehicle vision as a “combination of a Tesla-owned fleet and also enabling Tesla owners to be able to add or subtract their car to the fleet" for autonomous use.” "I think it's maybe possible for Tesla owners to make more in allowing the car to be added to the self-driving fleet than it costs them in the lease," said Musk.

The Bottom Line: After years of imaging what our transportation future might look like — it's here and it's scaling rapidly.