Michelle Williams says she wants her kids to grow up seeing their mother work. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Turner 2025-05-20T04:36:35Z d Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Michelle Williams knows how challenging it is to be a working mother. She says balancing her career and motherhood is like figuring out "which master you're going to serve." "Because the truth is, if work is going well, somebody else is taking care of the kids," she said. Michelle Williams knows balancing her acting career with being a mom is tough.During a Monday appearance on the "Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard" podcast, Williams, 44, shared how she juggles life as a mother of four while keeping her acting career on track."Kids are such great life checkers. They force you to put your best self in front of them," she told podcast host Dax Shepard. "You can't abdicate your life and your work and your own desires, but you do have to put them in check and figure out which master you're going to serve."The "Brokeback Mountain" star welcomed her first child, Matilda, in 2005 with her then-boyfriend, the late actor Heath Ledger. In 2020, she married director Thomas Kail, with whom she shares three children.For her, being a working mom is about striking a careful balance — never letting her kids or her career go "unattended for too long.""Because the truth is, if work is going well, somebody else is taking care of the kids. And if you're in a high point with your kids, the work is shoved to the side," Williams said."You can't be equally good at them at the exact same time, and you have to allow for that give and take, but then also replenish the other things. If you have a big period of being at home, you need to go back to what you've left unattended and put some light over there," she continued.Williams says she also wants her kids to grow up seeing their mom work, which makes it hard to step away from her career for too long. However, the pull of being a mother is hard to resist."My best day with my children is better than my best day at work. I am more thrilled with that high than I am with a work high," she said.This isn't Williams's first time speaking about being a working mom."So you have to figure it out because we have to stay in the workforce, even though it often feels like it's untenable. My heart obviously belongs to my children; they tug at it the most. But I really want to be able to have both," she told Entertainment Weekly in a January 2023 interview.Other female Hollywood stars have also spoken up about balancing their personal and professional lives.Naomi Watts, 56, said she tried freezing her eggs when she was in her early 30s to focus on her career."Because I came into it late — at least with my launching — I was told to work, work, work because it'll all be dried up at 40," Watts told Katie Couric in a January interview.Cameron Diaz, who took a decadelong hiatus from Hollywood, said she spent those 10 years "trying to stay alive just like every other mother."During Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit 2024, she elaborated on her decision to stop acting."It really comes to: What are you passionate about? For me, it was to build my family," Diaz said.A representative for Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours. Recommended video #michelle #williams #says #you #039can039t

Republicans want to stop states from regulating AI. On Sunday, a Republican-led House committee submitted a budget reconciliation bill that proposes blocking states from enforcing “any law or regulation” targeting an exceptionally broad range of automated computing systems for 10 years after the law is enacted — a move that would stall efforts to regulate everything from AI chatbots to online search results. Democrats are calling the new provision a “giant gift” to Big Tech, and organizations that promote AI oversight, like Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI), say it could have “catastrophic consequences” for the public. It’s a gift companies like OpenAI have recently been seeking in Washington, aiming to avoid a slew of pending and active state laws. The budget reconciliation process allows lawmakers to fast-track bills related to government spending by requiring only a majority in the Senate rather than 60 votes to pass. This bill, introduced by House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY), would prevent states from imposing “legal impediments” — or restrictions to design, performance, civil liability, and documentation — on AI models and “automated decision” systems. It defines the latter category as “any computational process derived from machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence that issues a simplified output, including a score, classification, or recommendation, to materially influence or replace human decision making.”That means the 10-year moratorium could extend well beyond AI. Travis Hall, the director for state engagement at the Center for Democracy & Technology, tells The Verge that the automated decision systems described in the bill “permeate digital services, from search results and mapping directions, to health diagnoses and risk analyses for sentencing decisions.”During the 2025 legislative session, states have proposed over 500 laws that Hall says this bill could “unequivocally block.” They focus on everything from chatbot safety for minors to deepfake restrictions and disclosures for the use of AI in political ads. If the bill passes, the handful of states that have successfully passed AI laws may also see their efforts go to waste. “The move to ban AI safeguards is a giveaway to Big Tech that will come back to bite us.”Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law preventing companies from using a performer’s AI-generated likeness without permission. Tennessee also adopted legislation with similar protections, while Utah has enacted a rule requiring certain businesses to disclose when customers are interacting with AI. Colorado’s AI law, which goes into effect next year, will require companies developing “high-risk” AI systems to protect customers from “algorithmic discrimination.”California also came close to enacting the landmark AI safety law SB 1047, which would have imposed security restrictions and legal liability on AI companies based in the state, like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta. OpenAI opposed the bill, saying AI regulation should take place at the federal level instead of having a “patchwork” of state laws that could make it more difficult to comply. Gov. Newsom vetoed the bill last September, and OpenAI has made it clear it wants to avoid having state laws “bogging down innovation” in the future.With so little AI regulation at the federal level, it’s been left up to the states to decide how to deal with AI. Even before the rise of generative AI, state legislators were grappling with how to fight algorithmic discrimination — including machine learning-based systems that display race or gender bias — in areas like housing and criminal justice. Efforts to combat this, too, would likely be hampered by the Republicans’ proposal.Democrats have slammed the provision’s inclusion in the reconciliation bill, with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) saying the 10-year ban will “allow AI companies to ignore consumer privacy protections, let deepfakes spread, and allow companies to profile and deceive consumers using AI.” In a statement published to X, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said the proposal “will lead to a Dark Age for the environment, our children, and marginalized communities.”RelatedThe nonprofit organization Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) compared the potential ban to the government’s failure to properly regulate social media. “Lawmakers stalled on social media safeguards for a decade and we are still dealing with the fallout,” ARI president Brad Carson said in a statement. “Now apply those same harms to technology moving as fast as AI… Ultimately, the move to ban AI safeguards is a giveaway to Big Tech that will come back to bite us.”This provision could hit a roadblock in the Senate, as ARI notes that the Byrd rule says reconciliation bills can only focus on fiscal issues. Still, it’s troubling to see Republican lawmakers push to block oversight of a new technology that’s being integrated into almost everything.See More: Source: https://www.theverge.com/news/666288/republican-ai-state-regulation-ban-10-years #republicans #push #for #decadelong #ban #states #regulating

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Late last night, House Republicans introduced new language to the Budget Reconciliation bill that will immiserate the lives of millions of Americans by cutting their access to Medicaid, and making life much more difficult for millions more by making them pay higher fees when they seek medical care. While a lot of attention will be justifiably given to these cuts, the bill has also crammed in new language that attempts to entirely stop states from enacting any regulation against artificial intelligence. "...no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10 year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act," says the text of the bill introduced Sunday night by Congressman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The text of the bill will be considered by the House at the budget reconciliation markup on May 13. That language of the bill, how it goes on to define AI and other "automated systems," and what it considers "regulation," is broad enough to cover relatively new generative AI tools and technology that has existed for much longer. In theory, that language will make it impossible to enforce many existing and proposed state laws that aim to protect people from and inform them about AI systems. [...] In theory none of these states will be able to enforce these laws if Republicans manage to pass the Budget Reconciliation bill with this current language. Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: https://politics.slashdot.org/story/25/05/13/2033237/republicans-try-to-cram-decade-long-ai-regulation-ban-into-budget-reconciliation-bill?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed #republicans #try #cram #decadelong #regulation #ban #into #budget #reconciliation #bill

Artificial regulation GOP sneaks decade-long AI regulation ban into spending bill Sweeping provision would halt all local oversight of AI by US states. Benj Edwards – May 13, 2025 10:58 am | 51 Credit: Getty Images Credit: Getty Images Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more On Sunday night, House Republicans added language to the Budget Reconciliation bill that would block all state and local governments from regulating AI for 10 years, 404 Media reports. The provision, introduced by Representative Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, states that "no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10 year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act." The broad wording of the proposal would prevent states from enforcing both existing and proposed laws designed to protect citizens from AI systems. For example, California's recent law requiring health care providers to disclose when they use generative AI to communicate with patients would potentially become unenforceable. New York's 2021 law mandating bias audits for AI tools used in hiring decisions would also be affected, 404 Media notes. The measure would also halt legislation set to take effect in 2026 in California that requires AI developers to publicly document the data used to train their models. The ban could also restrict how states allocate federal funding for AI programs. States currently control how they use federal dollars and can direct funding toward AI initiatives that may conflict with the administration's technology priorities. The Education Department's AI programs represent one example where states might pursue different approaches than those favored by the White House and its tech industry allies. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, chaired by Guthrie, scheduled consideration of the text during the budget reconciliation markup on May 13. The language defines AI systems broadly enough to encompass both newer generative AI tools and older automated decision-making technologies. The reconciliation bill primarily focuses on cuts to Medicaid access and increased health care fees for millions of Americans. The AI provision appears as an addition to these broader health care changes, potentially limiting debate on the technology's policy implications. The move is already inspiring backlash. On Monday, tech safety groups and at least one Democrat criticized the proposal, reports The Hill. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), the ranking member on the Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee, called the proposal a "giant gift to Big Tech," while nonprofit groups like the Tech Oversight Project and Consumer Reports warned it would leave consumers unprotected from AI harms like deepfakes and bias. Big Tech’s White House connections President Trump has already reversed several Biden-era executive orders on AI safety and risk mitigation. The push to prevent state-level AI regulation represents an escalation in the administration's industry-friendly approach to AI policy. Perhaps it's no surprise, as the AI industry has cultivated close ties with the Trump administration since before the president took office. For example, Tesla CEO Elon Musk serves in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), while entrepreneur David Sacks acts as "AI czar," and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen reportedly advises the administration. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared with Trump in an AI datacenter development plan announcement in January. By limiting states' authority over AI regulation, the provision could prevent state governments from using federal funds to develop AI oversight programs or support initiatives that diverge from the administration's deregulatory stance. This restriction would extend beyond enforcement to potentially affect how states design and fund their own AI governance frameworks. Benj Edwards Senior AI Reporter Benj Edwards Senior AI Reporter Benj Edwards is Ars Technica's Senior AI Reporter and founder of the site's dedicated AI beat in 2022. He's also a tech historian with almost two decades of experience. In his free time, he writes and records music, collects vintage computers, and enjoys nature. He lives in Raleigh, NC. 51 Comments Source: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/05/gop-sneaks-decade-long-ai-regulation-ban-into-spending-bill/ #gop #sneaks #decadelong #regulation #ban #into #spending #bill #sweeping #provision #would #halt #all #local #oversight #states