• The end of December, especially before a change in administration and a new Congress in January, is a slow time in Washington, DC, but this week, we highlight the few recent AI developments that have come out of our nation’s capital.
• On December 16, the US Copyright Office announced that the release of parts 2 and 3 of its much-anticipated report on AI and copyright issues will be delayed until 2025.
• On December 23, President Biden signed into law the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which directs defense agencies to adopt the use of AI but does not include comprehensive and prospective AI regulations.
• Throughout December, President-elect Trump has tapped additional people to guide his administration’s AI policy, including veterans of his first administration and a former Silicon Valley executive.

The end of December, especially before a change in administration and a new Congress in January, is a quiet time in Washington, DC. This week’s AI: The Washington Report highlights the few developments that have come out of the nation’s capital in the past two weeks, from an update on an AI copyright report to the new defense law’s AI provisions to the next Trump administration’s AI team.

US Copyright Office Delays Reports on AI

In a December 16 letter to members of Congress, the director of the US Copyright Office announced that parts 2 and 3 of the department’s much-anticipated report on the copyright issues raised by AI will be released in 2025. As we covered, parts 2 and 3 were originally supposed to be released by the end of FY 2024, but the date was then pushed to the end of the calendar year. The Copyright Office released part 1 of the report on July 31, which focused on digital replicas, “the use of digital technology to realistically replicate an individual’s voice or appearance.” According to the director’s letter, Part 2 will focus on the copyrightability of generative AI outputs and will be released “after the New Year holiday.” Part 3 will analyze “the legal issues related to the ingestion of copyrighted work to train AI models” and is expected to be published “in the first quarter of 2025.”

The US Copyright Office’s report on AI was commissioned by President Biden’s Executive Order on AI (AI EO). President-elect Trump is expected to repeal most, if not all, of Biden’s AI EO, creating the possibility that parts 2 and 3 of the report will never see the light of day.

Biden Signs NDAA, with AI Provisions, into Law

On December 23, President Biden signed the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law, which, as we covered, includes numerous AI provisions. These provisions, however, do not substantially regulate the use of AI, even though President Biden and the Bipartisan Senate AI Working Group had called for substantive and prescriptive AI legislation earlier this year. The NDAA’s AI provisions direct defense agencies to launch pilot programs and initiatives to accelerate the federal government’s adoption and use of AI for defense purposes.

President-elect Trump Adds Members to AI Team for Second Administration

President-elect Trump has added additional picks to his AI team for his second administration, including veterans of his first administration and a former Silicon Valley executive. They will work alongside Trump’s AI Czar, David Sacks, whose views we’ve written about, to guide the next administration’s approach to AI, one that is expected to be pro-industry and against overly burdensome regulations for the private sector. The new picks include:

• Michael Kratsios, the former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) under the first Trump administration, will serve as the next Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Kratsios is currently the Managing Director of an AI company and has previously worked at a Silicon Valley investment firm.
• Lynne Parker, the former deputy CTO and Director of the National AI Initiative Office under the first Trump administration, will be the Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology. Parker has worked in academia for over two decades, focusing on AI and other technology issues.
• Sriram Krishnan will serve as the Senior Policy Advisor for AI at OSTP. Krishnan has worked previously in high-level roles at several Silicon Valley technology companies.

We will continue to monitor, analyze, and issue reports on developments about the Trump administration’s approach to and policies for AI, as well as the future of AI legislation in the 119th Congress.

Matthew Tikhonovsky also contributed to this article.