When Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced a ‘major effort’ in April to put the Senate’s imprint on artificial intelligence policy, he talked about having an ‘urgency to act’ and said a legislative plan would start taking shape in a matter of weeks.

‘In the coming weeks, Leader Schumer plans to refine the proposal in conjunction with stakeholders from academia, advocacy organizations, industry, and the government,’ he said in an April 13 statement.

But on Thursday, more than two months later, Schumer indicated that legislation may not be ready until 2024. In Wednesday remarks to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Schumer said the process of getting input for the plan is still months away.

‘Later this fall, I will convene the top minds in artificial intelligence here in Congress for a series of AI Insight Forums to lay down a new foundation for AI policy,’ he said. Schumer said developers, scientists, CEOs, national security experts and others must do ‘years of work in a matter of months,’ a sign the effort could go well into next year.

He said once this input is collected, it will be up to legislators to listen and translate their ideas into legislation. He outlined a broad range of issues to cover, including how to protect innovation, intellectual property rights, risk management, national security, guarding against ‘doomsday scenarios,’ transparency, ‘explainability’ and privacy.

Making the job even more difficult, Schumer said bipartisan support is critical to the effort and said several committees will be expected to chip in.

Schumer this week announced what he called the SAFE Innovation Framework for AI, which is aimed at protecting U.S. innovation in this emerging field but ensuring there are guardrails to ensure security, promote accountability, support human liberty, civil rights and justice, and guarantee that AI outputs can be explained to users.

But Schumer laid out similar goals in April when he talked about the need to inform users, reduce the potential harm caused by AI outputs and make sure AI systems line up with ‘American values.’

Jake Denton, a technology policy research associate at the Heritage Foundation, said he sees Schumer’s recent announcement mostly as a sign that the process hasn’t gotten very far yet.

‘The goalpost seems to keep moving,’ Denton told Fox News Digital. ‘We never really get the bill text. We never get the details.’

Schumer’s office declined to comment for this story.

Denton said the basic principles that Schumer has outlined twice now are broadly accepted ideas, but he said the trick will be turning them into legislation. Several ideas have bounced around Capitol Hill – including a commission to guide AI policy or even a new agency that could license AI technology and ensure it produces outputs that are free of bias or discrimination.

Denton said it’s possible that Congress is still months or even years away from passing significant legislation to regulate AI based on its current pace. He said the precedent is there, as Congress has allowed other technology to flourish before stepping in.

‘Our lawmakers are still in the process of trying to figure out how to handle social media,’ he noted.

While the effort could easily drift into next year, Schumer said this proposal is the most efficient path forward to get a congressional regulatory plan in place.

‘If we take the typical path – holding congressional hearings with opening statements and each member asking questions five minutes at a time on different issues – we simply won’t be able to come up with the right policies,’ he said.

‘By the time we act, AI will have evolved into something new,’ he added. ‘This will not do. A new approach is required.’

Legal and ethics ‘experts’ quoted in recent articles targeting conservative justices on the Supreme Court for alleged ethics violations have strong connections to prominent Democrats like President Biden and former President Bill Clinton, but those details were not made apparent in the recent stories.

In a Tuesday story titled ‘Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court,’ which was published by ProPublica, an individual named Kathleen Clark was quoted in a portion of the piece pertaining to disclosure matters and cited as an ‘ethics law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.’

But the publication failed to disclose that Clark – who has lent quotes to other ProPublica articles in the past – formerly worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee as a counsel while then-Senator Biden was chairman, according to Clark’s resume, which was obtained from the Washington University in St. Louis’ School of Law website.

Additionally, Clark worked under now-President Biden the same year he led what several Republicans consider to be a smear campaign against Justice Clarence Thomas during his confirmation process in 1991. That information was not disclosed by Clark or ProPublica.

Mike Davis of the Article III Project, a former high-level counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital that Clark should come clean about her past and insisted that she should not be cited as an objective ethics expert before disclosing her ties to prominent Democrats in the past.

‘Kathleen Clark was a partisan Democrat lawyer for then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Joe Biden when they viciously smeared Justice Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearing,’ Davis said. ‘To consider Kathleen Clark any sort of objective ethics expert is like calling the head of ISIS an ‘austere religious scholar.”

Other legal minds quoted in the Tuesday story about disclosure matters, including Virginia Canter and Amanda Frost, also have ties to Democrats. Those details were not included in the story.

Canter, cited by ProPublica as ‘a former government ethics lawyer now at the watchdog group CREW,’ formerly served as a counsel in the Clinton White House, according to records from the State Department.

‘Ms. Canter served as Associate Counsel to President Clinton at the White House where she provided advice to Presidential and political appointees on ethics compliance and financial conflicts of interest,’ the biographical record noted.

Canter’s LinkedIn profile also notes that she served as associate counsel to former President Obama from January 2009 to February 2010. She also donated hundreds of dollars to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Democratic National Committee.

Cited by the publication as a ‘judicial ethics expert at the University of Virginia School of Law,’ Frost also boasts strong connections to Democrats. She formerly served as a legislative fellow to former U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy in the summer of 2006, according to her resume, which was obtained from the University of Virginia’s School of Law website.

Frost noted in her resume that she advised the late senator ‘on legal and policy issues concerning immigration, voting rights, courts and judicial nominations.’

Described earlier this year by Davis as a ‘far-left immigration professor’ and a ‘longtime leftwing activist and litigator at Public Citizen,’ Frost has given at least $10,000 to Democratic candidates or Democratic causes since 2008, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Asked by Fox News Digital whether she believes lending her comments on the issue were appropriate, given her donations to Democrats and former work for Kennedy, frost said, ‘Yes, my comments to the press are appropriate, as is my testimony and scholarship on this issue.’

Stressing that she had worked on both sides of the aisle in the past, Frost said that she ‘clerked for a Republican-appointed judge and that I have criticized the ethical conduct of justices appointed by Democrats in my public testimony before Congress and in my published academic scholarship.’

Further defending her point, Frost said she ‘spent the last twenty years promoting the enactment of ethics legislation that would (of course) apply to all the Justices, whoever appointed them.’

Earlier this year, Frost took part in a Senate Judiciary Hearing titled ‘Supreme Court Ethics Reform,’ where she used prior reports from ProPublica to strengthen her claim that certain justices, like Thomas, have ‘repeatedly violated laws regulating judicial ethics.’

In a statement to Fox News Digital, ProPublica said: ‘These are professionals with deep expertise and reputations for independence, who regularly criticize Democrats and Republicans alike. Several have served in Republican administrations.’

‘To our knowledge, no one with government ethics expertise has disputed the premise of the stories: When justices accept gifts from people with ideological or business interests before the court and do not disclose them, they are departing from the norms of behavior followed by the vast majority of federal judges,’ the outlet added.

Following the Tuesday story from ProPublica, Alito took a preemptive strike against the left-wing nonprofit over what he asserts is ‘misleading’ reporting.

Clark and Canter did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

EXCLUSIVE: Eric Schmidt, the billionaire former Google CEO and longtime Democratic donor, flew President Biden’s former top science adviser Eric Lander to a ritzy retreat in Montana during his tenure at the White House, emails reviewed by Fox News Digital reveal.

The internal White House emails — obtained by government watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) and shared exclusively with Fox News Digital — show that, in July 2021, Lander, his wife Lori and his daughter Jessica flew on a private jet managed by Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic venture Schmidt founded in 2017, to the private Yellowstone Weekend summit hosted every year by Schmidt in Montana.

A spokesperson for Lander told Fox News Digital that the former official reimbursed Schmidt Futures for his travel expenses and that the White House counsel’s office approved the trip. However, PPT Director Michael Chamberlain expressed concern about Lander’s decision to go on the trip.

‘Inappropriately taking private or charter flights for travel has been the undoing of more than one high-ranking official in the Executive Branch,’ Chamberlain told Fox News Digital. ‘The personnel and resources that have flowed into OSTP from a handful of wealthy, powerful individuals and organizations should give the American public pause to consider whether the factors driving that generosity may not be altogether altruistic.’ 

‘The Biden administration has made a very public commitment to putting science above politics and has talked a lot about adherence to its scientific integrity policies,’ Chamberlain continued. ‘The public remains skeptical, and this incident does nothing to quell that skepticism.’

At the time of the trip, Lander served as the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), giving him a lead role crafting policy in the Biden administration. He eventually resigned from the position last year after allegations of treating staff in a ‘disrespectful and demeaning way.’

In an email dated July 11, 2021, Schmidt Futures office assistant Adam Topper emailed Lander, his wife Lori and OSTP Deputy Chief of Staff Kevin Lo, on behalf of Schmidt and Jared Cohen, an associate of Schmidt and the president of global affairs at Goldman Sachs, with the Yellowstone Weekend itinerary and travel arrangements. 

According to the email, Lander, his wife and his daughter traveled on a ‘Schmidt Futures Charter’ from Washington, D.C., to Montana on July 15, 2021, and back days later. Schmidt and Cohen also provided accommodations for Lander and his family near the exclusive Yellowstone Club, the sprawling members-only ski and golf resort in Big Sky, Montana, where Yellowstone Weekend is held every summer.

‘On behalf of your hosts, Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, we are so looking forward to welcoming you next week to the 10th Annual Yellowstone Weekend!’ Topper wrote to Lander in the July 2021 email days before the trip.

In addition to listing his flight and accomodation details, the email noted the Landers would be housed with fellow Yellowstone Weekend attendees Matteo Renzi, the former prime minister of Italy, and Mathias Cormann, the secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. And an attached schedule of events showed the summit included various ‘sessions,’ receptions and activities. 

‘Dr. Lander received approval from the White House counsel’s office for this travel and reimbursed all applicable expenses,’ the spokesperson for Lander told Fox News Digital in a statement.

A source close to the conference confirmed Lander requested an invoice for the trip in August 2021 and that his payment has since been received.

According to a 2020 report from the non-profit Tech Transparency Project, little is known about Schmidt’s secretive retreat except that it routinely attracts high-profile politicians, policy analysts, celebrities and executives. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., musicians Lady Gaga and Leon Bridges, actors Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, journalist Ronan Farrow, and various D.C. insiders are all counted among the known past attendees.

The White House emails reviewed by Fox News Digital additionally showed that, one month prior to the retreat, Lander exchanged multiple emails with Cohen and Topper about the ethics implications of attending the event. The communications, though, didn’t address the potential implications of the private jet travel and accommodations provided to Lander.

In an email to Cohen on June 19, 2021, Lander said he talked to White House legal advisers who informed him of a series of conditions for the trip which he listed.

For example, Lander said he was advised he couldn’t speak in an official capacity on behalf of the federal government at the retreat and that he would have to take vacation time to attend the retreat. 

Lander was also advised that he wasn’t authorized to share non-public information and that any remarks he delivered should have a disclaimer that the views shared didn’t represent those of the Biden administration.

‘Please ensure that the organizer of this event is aware that you are participating solely in your personal capacity and does not advertise the event in a way that suggests otherwise,’ one of the conditions Lander included in his email to Cohen stated. 

‘Importantly, please inform the organizer not to identify you by your official title or position in any promotional materials, or on any website or invitation, except that your official title or position can be used as part of a bio, which also contains at least three additional biographical details about yourself, and which does not give any greater prominence to your official title/position over your other biographical details.’

Over the next days, Lander and event organizers discussed in multiple emails how he would be referred to in their retreat packet. At one point, Topper, Schmidt’s assistant, informed Lander the packets were not promotional and ‘exclusively for attendees to use while they are at the Yellowstone Weekend.’ Topper has since joined the White House to work for Vice President Kamala Harris.

‘He was not approved to attend this event in his official capacity,’ a White House OSTP spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘He attended this event in his personal capacity, was not there on behalf of the federal government, and was advised about his ethics obligations.’

Meanwhile, Schmidt is a prolific contributor to Democratic Party political campaigns and spearheaded an effort to boost Democratic candidates’ technological capabilities. Schmidt — who has an estimated net worth north of $24 billion, according to Bloomberg — has sent more than $12 million to Democrats in recent years, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Schmidt also wired $227,000 in in-kind contributions to STAC Labs, a tech start-up launched in 2019, which he has bankrolled through Schmidt Futures, for its work boosting tech and voter data analysis services on behalf of 18 state Democratic parties, additional election data showed.

And Schmidt has quietly developed an intricate network enabling him to have significant influence over White House artificial intelligence and public policy, Fox News Digital reported last week.

Schmidt worked as Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011 and then as the tech giant’s chairman until 2015. He subsequently worked as the executive chairman of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, until 2018, and as its technical adviser until 2020.

Fox News Digital reporter Aaron Kliegman contributed to this report.

President Biden picked up endorsements from three major abortion rights groups Friday, a day before the anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America and EMILY’S List will join Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally with the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., on Friday to announce their joint endorsement. The groups are throwing their support behind Biden as Democrats nationally have claimed several victories for abortion rights on ballot referendums or in courts and will press forward on the issue into the 2024 election. 

‘There is so much at stake,’ Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement to media outlets. ‘We know, clear as day, that if anti-abortion politicians gain control of the White House, they will exploit their power toward their ultimate goal: a national abortion ban.’

Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, told the Associated Press the president and vice president were proud to have earned the support of the groups. Since the decision last year by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, ‘we have seen the horrifying impact that the extreme MAGA agenda has on women’s health,’ she said, referring to former President Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan.

Since the Supreme Court ended federal protections for abortion rights, 22 Republican-controlled state legislatures have advanced laws restricting abortion, such as Florida’s ban on most elective abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. That law — and similar legislation in other states — faces legal challenges from abortion rights groups and providers. Republicans campaigning for president including Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis supported the Supreme Court’s decision and have opposed actions by Democratic-controlled legislatures to expand abortion access. 

In contrast, Biden has called on Congress to pass legislation that would codify federal protections for abortion rights. The president also signed executive orders intended to safeguard access to abortion and make abortion pills more available. And the Biden administration has brought together leaders from all 50 states to talk strategy on how to expand access and work together to help people in more restrictive states.

‘President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are the strongest advocates for reproductive freedom ever to occupy the White House, and NARAL Pro-Choice America proudly endorses their reelection,’ said NARAL Pro-Choice America president Mini Timmaraju. ‘It’s as simple as this: Abortion matters to Americans. In elections since the Supreme Court took away our right to abortion, voters have mobilized in massive numbers to elect Democrats who will fight to restore it. Americans know the extremist GOP stacked the courts to take away our freedoms, and they won’t forget it.’ 

EMILY’s List, a group that backs female candidates who support abortion rights, praised Vice President Kamala Harris as a powerful symbol for women. 

‘She is the highest serving woman who has broken the hard glass ceiling of representing women in the White House,’ EMILY’S List president Laphonza Butler said. ‘This is the administration using every bully pulpit it can to advance reproductive health and freedom across the country.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

President Biden doubled down on his accusation that China is being ruled by a dictatorship.

Biden was asked about his use of the term ‘dictator’ on Thursday during a question period with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Asked whether referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a dictator complicates the U.S. relationship with the People’s Republic of China, Biden said, ‘The answer to your [question] is ‘no.’’

‘When we’re talking to our allies and partners around the world, including India, we let the idea of my choosing and avoiding saying what I think is the facts with regard to the relationship with India, with China, is just not something I’m going to change very much,’ Biden said. 

The president went on to claim that the U.S. and China continue to maintain a good relationship, citing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to the country last week.

‘I believe that and I’ve said this for some time, that the hysteria about the relationship with China is collapsing and moving, etc., etc. We had an incident that caused some confusion, you might say,’ Biden said. ‘But Secretary Blinken had a great trip to China. I expect to be meeting with President Xi sometime in the future, in the near term. And I don’t think it’s had any real consequence.’

During a fundraiser in California on Tuesday night, Biden said Xi was embarrassed after the U.S. Air Force shot down the Chinese spy balloon.

‘The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it was he didn’t know it was there,’ the president said. ‘That’s a great embarrassment for dictators when they didn’t know what happened.’

China responded Wednesday to Biden’s comments, criticizing the remark as ‘extremely absurd and irresponsible.’

‘The U.S. remarks are extremely absurd and irresponsible. It is a blatant political provocation,’ Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded at a daily briefing on Wednesday. ‘China expresses strong dissatisfaction and opposition.’

Fox News’ Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff’s Republican opponent in his California Senate bid slammed the congressman’s claim that being censured by Congress is a ‘badge of honor.’

‘Every time Schiff opens his mouth, he lies,’ attorney and Republican Senate candidate Eric Early told Fox News Digital on Thursday. ‘At this point, he’s like a cornered animal who is just flailing around and saying one ridiculous thing after another.’

After becoming only the 25th member of Congress in American history to be censured, Schiff told Fox News that he takes it as a ‘badge of honor because this says that I’m effective.’

‘They go after people that they think are effective, I exposed the corruption of a former president,’ Schiff said. ‘I led the first impeachment trial of the former president to the first bipartisan vote to remove a president in U.S. history.’

Censure is the second-most serious form of discipline a representative can face in Congress, topped only by expulsion.

‘Wear your badge of honor well, Schiff, because this is obviously no badge of honor and frankly, once the lights go out, and once Schiff is finally out of our government, he’s going to be forever remembered as one of the worst to ever grace the halls of Congress,’ Early told Fox News Digital.

The censure vote against Schiff, which ultimately passed by a party line vote of 213-209 with six Republicans voting present, was launched by Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. The censure bill said that Schiff’s peddling of the debunked collusion narrative between Russia and former President Donald Trump was unbecoming of a member.

‘As chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff launched an all-out political campaign built on baseless distortions against a sitting U.S. president, at the expense of every single citizen in this country and the honor of the House of Representatives,’ Luna said before the vote.

‘With access to sensitive information unavailable to most members of Congress and certainly not accessible to the American people, Schiff abused his privileges, claiming to know the truth while leaving Americans in the dark about his web of lies… lies so severe that they altered the course of the country forever,’ she said.

Early, who a recent Berkeley IGS Poll shows leads a crowded field in the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein with 31% of California voters still undecided, told Fox News Digital that he agrees with Luna that Schiff did tremendous damage to the country.

‘The damage he did is incalculable,’ Early, who unsuccessfully ran against Schiff for his seat in Congress in 2020, said. ‘For years, he went on TV and in the press virtually every day lying to Americans, and what made it so much worse was that he was the head of the House Intelligence Committee, and so he made all Americans believe he had seen classified information that supported all of his lies about Russia collusion of the Trump campaign.’

‘He really was one of the leaders of a soft coup of a president, and he damaged the presidency tremendously,’ Early continued. ‘He divided the nation tremendously, and he continues to do all of that to this very day. He is a national disgrace of the highest magnitude, and yesterday, censure was so well-deserved.’