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First lady Melania Trump waves to the crowd during President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, March 4. | Pete Kiehart for POLITICO
QUICK FIX
— The Trumps and California’s AI watchdogs are … on the same side.
— A proposal to protect your brain data from — you guessed it — Elon Musk.
— Kamala Harris tours the AI circuit while mulling a 2026 run for governor.
FIRST IN DECODED: (DEEP) FAKE FRIENDS — Two of California’s most prolific Democrats fighting deepfakes are finding themselves on common ground with *checks notes* first lady Melania Trump.
State Sen. Aisha Wahab and Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan both told California Decoded in exclusive interviews that they welcome the first lady’s push on the Hill this week to pass the federal “TAKE IT DOWN Act,” aimed at outlawing non-consensual deepfake pornography and forcing tech companies to remove that kind of content when flagged by users.
Melania Trump could be a powerful ally in the battle the two lawmakers have been fighting from the other coast.
“This is where we as society and a country can come together and say ‘We won’t stand for this,’” said Wahab, who authored legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year, including similar rules allowing people to ask that deepfakes of them be taken down.
The first lady's communications director, Nick Clemens, told California Decoded: “Protecting children from malicious attacks online is something First Lady Melania Trump cares very deeply about, and there is bipartisan support for legislation like the Take It Down Act.” Trump said during her tour on the Hill that she got involved in this cause due to concerns about the “heartbreaking” impacts on young women in particular.
Bauer-Kahan, who is carrying a bill this session that would criminalize the online hosting and distribution of unauthorized deepfake porn, also embraced the backing from Trump world on this particular issue.
“I often say tech policy is best done when consistent across the country, but that’s been hard the last few years,” the Orinda lawmaker told Decoded. Bauer-Kahan said the more pressure that legislators can put on Big Tech at all levels to devote resources to taking down malicious and explicit deepfakes, the better.
She added that automated programs designed to detect and take down illegal explicit deepfakes have improved, but “getting these companies to take ownership over this issue” is challenging.
It’s an unusual message of support for the Trumps’ agenda from Democrats in a state the president loves to hate. Donald Trump himself even mentioned the bipartisan federal effort in his address to Congress on Tuesday — another bridge, however narrow, between the White House and Sacramento.
Not all deepfake rules are created equal, though — politically at least. One of the measures Newsom signed last year drew a legal challenge from Elon Musk’s X, arguing the requirements to label certain AI-generated political content violates free speech.
But deepfaked revenge porn is a bipartisan issue. The Melania Trump-backed measure has the support of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and is sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.).
The president said during his speech earlier this week he might make use of the TAKE IT DOWN Act himself.
“I’m going to use that bill for myself, if you don’t mind,” Trump said. “Nobody gets treated worse than I do online. Nobody.”
HAPPENING TODAY
NOW — The California Privacy Protection Agency reconvened this morning for the second and final day of its March board meeting.
What’s on the agenda: More time in closed session for the CPPA’s five board members to discuss a potential new executive director after former leader Ashkan Soltanideparted in January. The agency will then share an update on its implementation of Delete Request and Opt-out Platform rules, which will allow Californians to delete most personal information from all registered data brokers by 2026 via a single request submitted to the CPPA.
What’s not on the agenda: Dedicated time for board members to discuss sweeping proposed rules on automated decision-making that have attracted fierce criticism from tech and business groups. CPPA Board Chair Jennifer Urban said today that the agency will consider public comments and deliberate the rules at a special meeting planned for April 4.
A FACE FOR RADIO — Be sure to catch AI reporter extraordinaire Chase DiFeliciantonio (me) on today's edition of the POLITICO Tech podcast, where I’ll fill you in on how the latest round of Trump administration tariffs are hitting the California tech industry and dig into the implications that kind of sledgehammer economic policy could have for California's tech-tied economy and budget.
State Capitol
State Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) speaks on the Senate floor. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP
SCRATCHING YOUR HEAD — State Sen. Tom Umberg wants to protect your thoughts from Musk. Or at least the data one of his Neuralink brain implants might collect, should you find yourself chipped by the tech billionaire’s lesser-known venture.
The Orange County Democrat introduced a bill this week limiting how the data extracted from experimental brain-computer interfaces can be used. Tech issues are (ahem) top of mind for Umberg, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which often plays gatekeeper for dozens of tech-related bills that inevitably pass through Sacramento each year.
Umberg’s concerns don’t just focus on Musk’s company, which has been implanting devices in the brains of monkeys and the occasional willing human to give them the ability to control a computer. Information collected from other, less-invasive devices like wearable headbands designed to help with sleep would also be covered under the bill.
That kind of data would have to be used only for the original reason it was collected and not for another purpose someone looking to make a buck off of brainwaves might come up with later, according to the bill.
Using brain data to train an AI program, or selling someone’s sleep activity are some uses that come to mind. The economy of the future indeed.
Umberg put a fine point on where his main concerns lie Thursday, saying in a statement that “nobody deserves their innermost thoughts and feelings being perverted or manipulated by the likes of Elon Musk.”
Worth noting, though, that the billionaire’s tech can cut out the middleman between brain and computer, but can’t quite read your thoughts. Yet.
Artificial Intelligence
Kamala Harris is hitting the AI conference circuit. | Evan Vucci/AP
AI ON THE PRIZE — Former VP Kamala Harris and her advisers are plotting ways to keep her name in the national political conversation as she mulls a 2026 run for California governor — or perhaps a 2028 presidential bid, our colleagues Eugene Daniels and Chris Cadelago report this morning. High-profile AI events appear to be part of her strategy.
This weekend, she’s slated to headline the grand opening ceremony for HumanX, hosted at the ritzy Fontainebleau Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Just last week, she rubbed shoulders in Los Angeles with the likes of Gov. Gavin Newsom,Prince Harry, and Chelsea Clinton at one of the tech world’s most exclusive conferences, the Upfront Summit, Business Insider reports.
Per the agenda for this Sunday, she’ll lay out her vision for responsible AI development in a “thought-provoking” fireside chat with Nuno Sebastiao, CEO of fintech company Feedzai.
And while HumanX is comparatively low on A-listers after Upfront, it still plops Harris in Nevada — an early primary voting state — and in front of a swarm of C-suite executives and AI experts from companies including Google, Meta, Amazon, OpenAI and Anthropic.
Human Jobs
BOT WORK — OpenAI is hiring its first global policy intern for a 12-week stint this summer at the company’s global headquarters in San Francisco’s Mission District. The chosen student will receive an eye-popping $36 per hour, plus relocation benefits and a potential bonus.
DOWNSIZING — The Wall Street Journal laid off approximately a dozen tech reporters and editors this week, including at least eight California-based staff, as it restructures its tech coverage. According to Talking Biz News, those let go from the paper’s California operation include: Global Tech Editor Jason Dean; AI Editor Ben Fritz; tech editors Liz Wollman and Eric Bellman; and reporters Asa Fitch, Aaron Tilley, Alexa Corse, Miles Kruppa and Tom Dotan.
Byte Sized
— The microchip industry is scrambling after Trump vaguely mentioned he wants to get rid of the CHIPS Act (POLITICO)
— Logitech says being based in San Jose gives them a competitive edge (SiliconValley.com)
— The retrenchment of the tech industry brings a weak job market to Silicon Valley, but personal income is on the rise (Mercury News)
