One Big Bad Bill
Jun 23, 2025·
·
3 min read
muckrAIkers
In this episode, we break down Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" and its dystopian AI provisions: automated fraud detection systems, centralized citizen databases, military AI integration, and a 10-year moratorium blocking all state AI regulation. We explore the historical parallels with authoritarian data consolidation and why this represents a fundamental shift away from limited government principles once held by US conservatives.
EPISODE RECORDED 2025.06.15; TRANSCRIPT
Chapters
00:00 ❙ Intro
01:13 ❙ Bill, general overview
05:14 ❙ Bill, AI overview
07:54 ❙ Medicaid fraud detection systems
11:20 ❙ Bias in AI Systems and Ethical Concerns
17:58 ❙ Centralization of data
30:04 ❙ Military integration of AI
37:05 ❙ Tax incentives for development
40:57 ❙ Regulatory moratorium
47:58 ❙ One big bad authoritarian regime
01:13 ❙ Bill, general overview
05:14 ❙ Bill, AI overview
07:54 ❙ Medicaid fraud detection systems
11:20 ❙ Bias in AI Systems and Ethical Concerns
17:58 ❙ Centralization of data
30:04 ❙ Military integration of AI
37:05 ❙ Tax incentives for development
40:57 ❙ Regulatory moratorium
47:58 ❙ One big bad authoritarian regime
Links
- Congress page on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
- NYMag article - Republicans Admit They Didn’t Even Read Their Big Beautiful Bill
- Everything is Horrible Blogpost - They Did Vote For This (GOP House Edition)
Authoritarianism
- Historical context
- Conservative leaning, pro-privacy, anti-government
- Data Governance Hub blogpost - Review and Literature Guide of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Dataset”
- Cato Institute blogpost - If You Value Privacy, Resist Any Form of National ID Cards
- American Enterprise Intitute blogpost - The Dangerous Road to a “Master File”—Why Linking Government Databases Is a Terrible Idea
- EFF blogpost - The Dangers of Consolidating All Government Information
- ACLU against national ID cards
- Inherent unfairness of ML
- Lighthouse Reports investigation - The Limits of Ethical AI
- Lighthouse Reports investigation - Suspicion Machines
- Amazon Science publication - Bias preservation in machine learning: The legality of fairness metrics under EU non-discrimination law
- Michigan Technology Law Review article - The Unfairness of Fair Machine Learning: Levelling down and strict egalitarianism by default
- Wired article - Health Care Bias Is Dangerous. But So Are ‘Fairness’ Algorithms
Military
- WallStreet Journal article - The Army’s Newest Recruits: Tech Execs From Meta, OpenAI and More
- Trump executive order - Unleashing American Drone Dominance
- Anthropic press release - Claude Gov Models for U.S. National Security Customers
Moratorium on State AI Regulation
- TechPolicy.Press article - The State AI Laws Likeliest To Be Blocked by a Moratorium
- Forbes article - Colorado’s AI Law Still Stands After Update Effort Fails
Other Sources
- KPMG report - Incentives and credits tax provisions in “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”
- The Register article - Trump team leaks AI plans in public GitHub repository
- WallStreet Journal article - To Feed Power-Wolfing AI, Lawmakers Are Embracing Nuclear
- CBS Austin article - IRS direct file program exceeded its expectations but faces uncertain future
