The "OBBB" and AI: Handing the Keys to the Techbros

Techno-authoritarianism coming soon?

In the stupidly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”—a.k.a. the reconciliation bill from hell—there’s a provision that states: “No state or political subdivision may enforce any law or regulation” relating to AI models or automated decision systems for the next decade.

This is called federal pre-emption, and it means that only the federal government can regulate AI—and its programmers—for the next ten years. It’s being sold as a way to “encourage innovation” and avoid a patchwork of state laws. To be fair, both of those things are technically true. But that’s not what this provision is really about.

No, sadly, the reality is likely much darker. What this provision actually means is that when—not if, but when—the techbros go too far with AI, no one, and no law, will be able to stop them. State laws will already be off the table. Federal agencies—the alphabet soup of oversight—have been neutered and won’t be coming back anytime soon. And Congress? Don’t count on it. Between corruption, dysfunction, polarization, veto threats, and plain ignorance, the odds of meaningful legislative action are slim to none.

That leaves the President—and techbro money, power, and influence won’t take no for an answer, no matter who’s behind the Resolute desk.

What happens when no one regulates AI? Sure, there might be some good—maybe we won’t have to lift a finger to do anything ever again. But when these messianic, narcissistic, maniacal techbros inevitably go too far—and they will—the result could be a turbocharged 1984:

• No privacy

• Total data control

• Personalized propaganda shaping your thoughts

• Erasure of dissent

• Digital disappearances

Call it techno-fascism, techno-feudalism, algorithmic authoritarianism—it’s all the same in the end. A dystopian sci-fi story come to life.

And this isn’t abstract anymore. It’s already been reported that Palantir and Peter Thiel are building a meta-database—one that links all the government’s data, including what they have on you and me. Musk is almost certainly doing the same with the data he’s siphoned off while he was at DOGE.

In practical terms, this provision would mean that for the next four years, at a minimum, no one would do a thing to slow them down. A four-year head start at this stage of AI development would be almost impossible to overcome. Once they build the infrastructure, entrench the systems, and normalize the surveillance, clawing any of it back becomes a herculean task.

Finally, let’s put that ten-year window in perspective. Remember Cambridge Analytica? Remember what it did to help Trump’s first election? That was ten years ago, and their tech was considered cutting-edge. Today it looks like they were using an abacus.

Now imagine where this technology will be ten years from now.

Then imagine no one has the authority to rein in Musk, Zuckerberg, Altman, Thiel, Dorsey, Andreessen, Bezos, or any of their ilk as they charge ahead.

Please: call or write your senators and representatives. This time federal, state, and local.