| | | | |  | | By Ruth Reader, Carmen Paun and Erin Schumaker | With Sophie Gardner
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Key players close to President Donald Trump, like tech billionaire Elon Musk, could influence his AI approach. | Alex Brandon/AP | Everyone wants to know how the Trump administration will regulate artificial intelligence in the health industry. The newly inaugurated president has promised to rescind former President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI, which instructed agencies to put guardrails around AI that could impact public health and safety. A repeal isn’t likely to affect HHS, but substantial AI-related changes might still be ahead for the department. A roster of key players in Trump’s orbit could also influence how the president’s AI approach unfolds: David Sacks: The new White House AI czar is a long-time venture capitalist and lawyer who’s expected to support policies that boost AI startups. Notably, his one investment in health care, a public benefit corporation called Pair Team, connects Medicaid recipients in California with health services using AI. One of the platform’s goals is to reduce health care spending by avoiding hospitalizations. Elon Musk: The wild-card billionaire, who’s scored a privileged post advising Trump on government efficiency, thinks AI is a threat to humankind. He supported a California bill, vetoed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, which would have held companies liable for harms stemming from their AI. He’s also raised concerns about AI bias — a key issue for the Biden administration — but only for chatbots espousing ideas he opposes. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: When Trump’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services was on the presidential campaign trail last year, he called for more AI transparency. But Kennedy isn’t interested in letting blue chip companies set policy agenda. He also suggested global leaders collaborate on treaties to ensure humanity is protected from the technology. Dr. Marty Makary: The nominee for FDA commissioner has tweeted in support of two AI positions papers by Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who helmed the agency under Trump until 2019. Gottlieb has advocated for expanding the FDA’s authorities so it can get insight into how companies ensure their products’ reliability. He also supports focusing regulations on high-risk uses of AI while industry mediates lower risk algorithms. Makary, who considers himself an industry disruptor, has also tweeted about nurse opposition to AI, suggesting he’s sensitive to how much authority the FDA is given in practice. Paragon Health Institute: An expert at Paragon, an influential think tank close to the Trump administration, wrote in a report that the FDA needs a paradigm shift to regulate AI, including a focus on ensuring products are safe and effective after they hit the market. Congress would have to grant the agency new authorities for such changes. There are a few through lines. Rules made under the Trump administration will likely support AI innovation, particularly startups, especially if that technology can cut health care spending. Trump has previously rolled back health protections for LGBTQ+ Americans and could limit the HHS’ Office of Civil Rights rule prohibiting AI discrimination. The players tend to agree that the FDA would need new authorities to regulate high-risk AI to ensure its safety and effectiveness. But it’s also likely the Trump administration will cede oversight of low-risk algorithms that aren't directly involved in patient care.
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Brooklyn, N.Y. | Erin Schumaker/POLITICO | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood, died today, her family said. Richards, age 67, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, in 2023. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp.
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Former President Joe Biden extended a preemptive pardon to Dr. Anthony Fauci just before leaving office. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | After receiving an eleventh-hour preemptive pardon this morning from former President Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci told POLITICO he appreciates the pardon, but has "committed no crime." Dr. Anthony Fauci, former chief medical adviser to Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH, drew ire from Republicans for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and was expected to be targeted with legal action under the incoming Trump administration, Carmen and Sophie report. Several Republican congresspeople and allies of President Donald Trump — including Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist — have threatened retribution. From the horse's mouth: In a statement to POLITICO outlining his service at the National Institutes of Health, including advising seven presidents, from Ronald Reagan to Biden, Fauci said he’s been the subject of politically motivated threats of investigation and prosecution. “Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me,” he said. But the “mere articulation of these baseless threats and the potential that they will be acted upon, create immeasurable and intolerable distress for me and my family,” Fauci added. That’s why he acknowledges and appreciates “the action that President Biden has taken today on my behalf,” Fauci wrote. Biden’s decision is already spurring criticism from the Trump camp. “If there was ever any doubt as to who bears responsibility for the COVID pandemic, Biden’s pardon of Fauci forever seals the deal,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) posted on X. “As Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee I will not rest until the entire truth of the coverup is exposed.” Covid lightning rod: Fauci, who led NIAID for nearly 40 years and helped manage the U.S. Covid response before retiring in 2022, became a target of people on the right who saw mask mandates and other pandemic policies as infringing on their rights. Fauci’s critics also accused him of involvement in an alleged coverup related to Covid’s origins. Republicans in Congress have alleged that Fauci was involved in suppressing the theory that a lab accident in Wuhan, China, was responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic. Fauci has endorsed the theory that the disease came from an infected animal and repeatedly pushed back on allegations that he was involved in a coverup. The GOP push against Fauci progressed in May, when the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a series of private emails that suggested some employees at NIH tried to avoid having to comply with public records laws. Fauci and his family have received death threats, and he has protective security.
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The University of Texas at Austin launched an AI and computer-modeling lab for testing new medical treatments. | Mary Altaffer/AP Photo | The University of Texas at Austin is leveling up its artificial intelligence health care game. The school launched an AI and computer-modeling laboratory called the Center for Computational Medicine last week, a collaboration between Dell Medical School and UT’s Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences. Charles Taylor, a professor whose research focuses on machine learning and digital twin technology, will lead the center. Why it matters: Researchers use so-called digital twins, or virtual duplications of patient organs and biological processes, to test treatments. “The idea with the digital twin is you can test alternate treatment strategies out on a digital representation of the patient, see what might work best, and then use that information to go forward with what you consider at that time to be a better treatment strategy,” Taylor told Austin’s NPR affiliate, KUT News. What’s next: AI and computational modeling will give doctors another tool in their toolkits without replacing their judgment or placing their jobs in jeopardy, according to Taylor. “It won’t be able to synthesize and integrate information the way a brain can, the way a trained physician can — for the foreseeable future, in my estimation,” he said. “But it will be a tool, and probably an increasingly powerful tool.” | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
