This week’s government tech regulation activity.

This week was busy on the frontlines of federal efforts to regulate the tech industry—cryptocurrency-mining taxes, a meeting of AI bigwigs, and $140 million in federal dollars toward research.

Here’s what appeared on the Biden administration’s agenda:

Taxing crypto: The White House announced that President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for 2024 includes a new energy tax on crypto mining, called the Digital Asset Mining Energy tax (DAME). Crypto mining firms don’t currently pay “for the full cost they impose on others” through environmental pollution, higher energy prices, and increased greenhouse-gas emissions, the president’s Council of Economic Advisors wrote in a blog post.

With the introduction of DAME, which is expected to raise $3.5 billion in revenue in the next decade, firms would be required to pay 30% in taxes on the electricity they consume.

As Rolling Stone put it, “Biden wants to tax the hell out of crypto mining.”

The announcement comes on the heels of the Crypto-Asset Environmental Transparency Act, which was reintroduced in the Senate in March. The law would require certain crypto-mining companies to disclose mining emissions above a stated threshold.

AI planning session: On Thursday, the Biden administration laid out additional steps aimed at addressing potential AI risks that include funding for “responsible research and development” and a chat with the CEOs of four tech companies about “risks and potential harms to individuals and our society.”

In addition to pledging $140 million to establish seven new National AI Research Institutes focused on “responsible AI innovation,” the administration announced an “independent commitment” from “leading AI developers, including Anthropic, Google, Hugging Face, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Stability AI,” to submit to a public evaluation of their models to ensure they align with the administration’s existing framework for AI development and to inform research on their potential impact.

The Office of Management and Budget will also be releasing draft policy guidance on the use of AI by the federal government, which will be open to public comment and will set rules for agencies to “responsibly leverage AI to advance their missions and strengthen their ability to equitably serve Americans—and serve as a model for state and local governments, businesses and others to follow in their own procurement and use of AI.”

The White House statement came hours ahead of a meeting between the president, vice president, and executives from Microsoft, Alphabet, Anthropic, and OpenAI (and in the wake of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan’s New York Times op-ed calling for regulation of what she termed “potentially revolutionary technology.”)

Meanwhile, across the pond, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority announced an initial review of the AI foundation models, aimed at understanding AI’s potential impact on consumer protection and competition.

“Foundation models, including large language models and generative AI…have the potential to transform much of what people and businesses do across the spectrum of human activity,” the agency wrote, noting that the review won’t cover the potential impacts on the labor market, data protection, or IP.

New rules: Also on Thursday, the White House published a national standards strategy for critical and emerging technologies intended to help bolster US competitiveness in global tech sectors that involves creating international standards for developing and using technologies the administration has deemed critical.

“Strategic competitors are actively seeking to influence international standards development, particularly for [critical and emerging technology],” a document summarizing the strategy said. “The United States must renew our commitment to the rules-based and private sector-led approach to standards development.”

In an effort led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, the administration will incentivize participation in standards development, engage in international forums like the International Telecommunication Union, and invest in training for stakeholders.