#AI regulation

#AI regulation

A union between human and machine? Not on this Ohio Republican's watch. A bill introduced last month by Buckeye state representative Thaddeus Claggett, from Licking County, would block AI systems from having legal personhood by declaring them to be "nonsentient entities," NBC4 News reports. It would also mean that AIs wouldn't be able to marry a human or another AI.

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This week in Other Barks & Bites: USPTO Acting Commissioner for Patents Valencia Martin Wallace sends an internal email to staff indicating that 1% of the agency's workforce will be laid off; U.S. sales of electric vehicles hit a record during the third quarter of 2025 just as federal subsidies for EV purchases ended; the Federal Circuit nixes US Inventor's pursuit of associational standing to sue the USPTO for denying its petition for rulemaking on discretionary denial criteria for AIA trials;

On the right, at the Westin DC Downtown: NatCon, a gathering of Trump officials and allies calling for the persecution of AI developers and the expulsion of the "insufficiently American." On the left, at the Salamander Hotel on the waterfront: the Abundance Conference, whose annoyingly optimistic proponents envision an American techno-utopia, which could be realized if governments just stopped regulating so damn much.

Hawley said he planned to introduce a bill on the topic "soon," but declined to offer further details. A self-styled populist, Hawley staked out his stance against autonomous vehicles in a speech at the National Conservatism last week, where he cast AI as part of a transhumanist project and called for a series of restrictions on the technology. "Only humans should drive cars and trucks," Hawley said at the time.

Elon Musk's Optimus demo at Tesla's We Robot event made one thing clear: when it comes to humanoids, the spotlight still belongs to the United States.