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 3 Minute Read

What Washington Is Missing About Silicon Valley

Learn this term now. It will be like learning the term "internet" in 1995:

"AGENTIC"

It means AI systems that go beyond answering questions (like ChatGPT), to taking real-world action. The term is derived from the words "agency," and "agent," and refers to the capacity of AI to act independently, make decisions, and exert control over its environment.

Examples of agentic AI include:

• Managing entire projects with minimal human intervention
• Collaborating with other agents (human or AI)
• Learning new domains without reprogramming
• Making moral or strategic decisions, such as in autonomous military systems, or economic planning

Agentic AI is not science fiction. It's emerging now. If you've tried one of the deep research models on a chatbot, you've used the "agentic web." The chatbot processes your question, searches the open web for you (acting as your "agent"), processes that information, and writes you an analysis that might include recommendations based on the AI's learning.

Think of this as just agentic AI emerging from the womb. When it's fully out, it will redefine work and life in untold ways. This will in turn have countless social and public policy implications . . . just as Washington is on the verge of barring state regulation of AI.  

What Silicon Valley Is Missing About Washington

While Silicon Valley has a sense of what it's unleashing, it has little sense of Washington's ability to deal with this technology. The most charitable view of the proposed moratorium on state-level AI regulation is that AI needs a national solution. This is certainly true, and also certainly naive.

There is a saying in public policy that if your solution relies on the United States Congress, it's a bad solution. Does anyone honestly think that this Congress or any Congress in recent memory is capable of managing the complexity of regulating agentic AI?

So is state regulation the solution? Count me skeptical. A patchwork of AI regulation reads like a recipe for confusion at best, and disaster at worst. Further, most states lack the scientific, academic, and regulatory expertise to even approach an issue this complex.

But what choice do we have?

Washington is not coming to the rescue. And letting AI companies self-regulate is like letting the fox guard the henhouse.

Many of the readers of this newsletter are involved in the discussions about the Big Beautiful Bill. Some of you may have even been involved in drafting the AI state regulatory moratorium. Everyone should think carefully about what this provision means. We are at the dawn of the AI age. With agentic AI coming to life. And with the federal government not only sitting this one out, but on the verge of forcing the states to sit it out as well. 

What does this mean for you? The only certainty is change and disruption at a dizzying pace. We'll continue to unpack here each week what that change looks like for public affairs and campaign professionals. But we'll also try to show you where those changes fit into the big picture.

-Bryan Miller

Two Ways To Operationalize This Email

🔱  Try one of deep research models on your favorite chatbot. You've just seen primitive agentic AI in action. If this is primitive, try to imagine what evolved agentic AI could look like.

🔱  Keep an eye on the state AI regulation moratorium in the Big Beautiful Bill. If it passes—buckle up. 

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