{"slug": "tech-bills-of-the-week-support-for-quantum-sciences-child-chatbot-protections", "title": "Tech bills of the week: Support for quantum sciences; Child-chatbot protections; and more", "summary": "A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced the National Quantum Readiness Act on Tuesday to codify elements of President Donald Trump's executive order on quantum information sciences, directing the Department of Defense, Department of Commerce, and National Science Foundation to create private-sector partnerships and requiring the Secretary of Defense to identify at least three next-generation quantum sensor projects within 60 days. Separately, Sens. Jon Husted and Andy Kim introduced the CHAT Act 2.0 on Wednesday to regulate AI chatbots' interactions with minors, including age verification, parental involvement, and a three-tier safeguard framework, while Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Ro Khanna reintroduced the AI Ads Act on Monday to ban fraudulent AI-generated content in political ads.", "body_md": "# Tech bills of the week: Support for quantum sciences; Child-chatbot protections; and more\n\n## Bills introduced this week feature bipartisan efforts to bolster emerging technologies, specifically quantum information sciences and AI’s impact on nuclear security, plus more chatbot regulations.\n\n**Bolstering U.S. quantum sciences **\n\nA bipartisan set of senators introduced legislation on Tuesday that would codify elements of President Donald Trump’s executive order on quantum information sciences and technologies.\n\n[The National Quantum Readiness Act](https://www.rounds.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/rounds-introduces-legislation-to-bolster-national-security-and-innovation-through-quantum-technologies), introduced by Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., focuses on spurring government funding for work in quantum information sciences at the industry level. It tasks the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce and the National Science Foundation to craft a plan that would create partnerships with the private sector using vehicles like prize challenges and advance market commitments.\n\nThe Secretary of Defense would need to identify at least three next-generation quantum sensor projects within 60 days of the bill being ratified and also increase domestic access to quantum information sciences resources, such as foundries and supply chains.\n\n“Quantum technologies are critical to the future of warfighting at home and abroad,” said Rounds in [the press release](https://www.rounds.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/rounds-introduces-legislation-to-bolster-national-security-and-innovation-through-quantum-technologies). “By codifying pieces of the Trump administration’s executive order, we’re kickstarting research and development of quantum technologies that can strengthen our defense systems. I’m pleased to be leading this legislation and look forward to working with my colleagues to get it signed into law.”\n\n**More regulation for children and chatbots**\n\nSens. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, and Andy Kim, D-N.J., added to the growing volume of legislation looking to regulate how minors engage with artificial intelligence chatbots, introducing the Children Harmed by AI Technology — or CHAT — Act 2.0 on Wednesday.\n\nThe CHAT Act 2.0 focuses on mitigating harmful output from generative AI chatbots. It includes provisions setting requirements for age verification and parental involvement, mandating disclosures when a person is communicating with a chatbot as opposed to a human and setting data privacy protections enforceable with the Federal Trade Commission.\n\nThe bill also mandates the creation of a three-tier framework to apply safeguards specific to chatbots that are tailored to education, companion and health outputs.\n\n“We need to protect children in the digital world the same way we do in the physical world,” Husted said in [the press release](https://www.husted.senate.gov/media/press-releases/husted-kim-lead-bipartisan-bill-to-protect-children-from-ai-companion-chatbots/). “As AI becomes more advanced and more accessible, we have a responsibility to make sure these tools are not exposing children to dangerous, manipulative or inappropriate interactions. The CHAT Act 2.0 would put guardrails in place to keep parents informed, protect children from harm and ensure their safety comes before unchecked technology.”\n\nHusted introduced the CHAT Act in 2025. Among other differences, the new CHAT Act 2.0 includes the tiered system to apply bespoke restrictions to different chatbots based on risk levels.\n\n**Banning AI-based misrepresentation in political ads **\n\nOn Monday, California Democrats Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Ro Khanna reintroduced a bill that prohibits the use of fraudulent AI-generated content in political campaign ads.\n\n[The AI Ads Act](https://www.schiff.senate.gov/news/press-releases/news-sen-schiff-rep-khanna-reintroduce-landmark-bill-to-combat-fraudulent-ai-generated-campaign-ads/) works to eradicate “fraudulent misrepresentation of political candidates or committees” created with AI, specifically covering ads asking for funds that are made in part or totally by AI.\n\nThe bill also asks for the revision of existing prohibitions within the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to include the fraudulent misrepresentation of any individuals “purporting to act on behalf of candidates and real or fictitious” political entities.\n\n“AI-generated fraudulent advertising which uses the likeness or voices of candidates to misrepresent their positions, campaigns, or causes, or otherwise misrepresents a candidate’s point of view is not only wrong — it poses a serious threat to our democracy that should concern all Americans regardless of their party,” said Schiff in the press release. “Fraudulent AI advertising has already proliferated in races across the country, and if Congress does not act, this runaway challenge will only get worse as AI becomes increasingly capable of blurring the lines between fact and fiction.”\n\n**Evaluating AI in nuclear management**\n\nA new bill seeks to have the National Nuclear Security Administration create a new program that will examine the role AI could potentially play in nuclear stockpile management, accounting for both the benefits and risks of the technology’s use.\n\n[The AI Threat Output and Monitoring Incident Containment Act](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9965/text?s=1&r=2&hl=artificial+intelligence), introduced on Monday by Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, chiefly seeks to create an Advanced Artificial Intelligence Nuclear Evaluation Program, in charge of testing AI systems to assess the likelihood of an AI nuclear incident, creating containment protocols and contingency plans for AI developers and National Laboratories and implementing red teaming and other security protocols.\n\nThe program will also work to produce a report, with help from the Energy secretary, sharing recommendations on AI regulations in the context of nuclear security and informed by the aforementioned testing efforts.\n\nThe bill mandates that large AI developers must participate in the program. It further stipulates that a covered developer’s failure to participate or efforts to obstruct the program will be deemed a civil penalty and result in a fine of up to $1 million. Critically, the bill says that every day a covered developer does not participate in the program counts as a separate violation and will result in additional penalties.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tech-bills-of-the-week-support-for-quantum-sciences-child-chatbot-protections", "canonical_source": "https://www.nextgov.com/policy/2026/07/tech-bills-week-support-quantum-sciences-child-chatbot-protections-and-more/415153/", "published_at": "2026-07-31 19:48:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-31 20:13:25.302231+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai"], "entities": ["Mike Rounds", "Richard Blumenthal", "Jon Husted", "Andy Kim", "Adam Schiff", "Ro Khanna", "Department of Defense", "National Science Foundation"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tech-bills-of-the-week-support-for-quantum-sciences-child-chatbot-protections", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tech-bills-of-the-week-support-for-quantum-sciences-child-chatbot-protections.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tech-bills-of-the-week-support-for-quantum-sciences-child-chatbot-protections.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tech-bills-of-the-week-support-for-quantum-sciences-child-chatbot-protections.jsonld"}}