“I wish there was someone who got what was happening and could just look at me and tell me that we weren’t crazy.” This may be what Congresswoman Lori Trahan (D-MA) was thinking when she announced a new federal framework to govern AI – a genuine bipartisan effort to craft federal rules for the technology before the midterm elections. And yet this line is actually from the 2006 cult-classic film “Stick It,” about a group of rival high school gymnasts who came together to support one another while competing at the World Gymnastics Championships. In the One Thoughtful Paragraph below, I explain how Congress could use a little team spirit.
Other news that reminds me of high school:
- Remember legwarmers, ladies? You wore them over jeans or leggings in the 1980’s because of Flashdance’s Jennifer Beals, and then everyone else was wearing them? Flash forward: Most U.S. adults wear a wellness device now. Wearable ownership has reached 57% of U.S. adults, according to a Rock Health survey of 8,000 respondents. Existing owners remain highly engaged – 83% wear their devices five or more days per week – and brand loyal, with 75% still using their original device or upgrading within the same brand.
- Remember face books before Facebook? Where you had a paper-based phone directory of everyone you needed to call? CMS is hosting a public meeting on June 15, 2026, to address comments on maintaining accurate provider directories for Medicare Advantage plans.
- Remember how the rich kids would compete about throwing the best parties in high school? Anthropic raised $65 billion in Series H funding, reaching $965 billion in post-money valuation and surpassing OpenAI as the highest-valued private AI company.
“It’s not called gym-nice-stics.” This is a line from the film Stick It, when one gymnast calls out another for being “nasty” to a teammate. The film is pretty great, with Jeff Bridges playing the insufferable but awesome gymnastics coach of the totally talented but emotionally troubled gymnastics star who eventually rallies her team of rivals to, well, “stick it” to the judges. I thought of this movie when I saw that U.S. House Representatives Lori Trahan (D-MA) and Jay Obernolte (R-CA) released their federal legislative proposal to regulate AI (that was mentioned in last week’s blog). And, as anticipated, the bipartisan effort got a smackdown by team rivals. Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu (D-CA), who co-chaired the House Bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence with Rep. Obernolte, said the 269-page discussion draft on AI “does not meet the enormity of the moment” and Politico explained this morning that “republican leaders have spent months turning up their noses at Obernolte’s compromise approach on AI.” Why all the team rivalry? Because the political version of the World Gymnastics Championship is coming up: mid-term elections. You can read about the bill and what the big sticking points are here, here, and here – and why Sam Altman of OpenAI is muddying the waters here and here – but the real barrier to agreement about a federal AI regulatory framework is that each side wants their own party to win the election messaging war. It reminds me of when our heroine mocked her coach in the movie Stick It: “Yeah, um, you’ve got a lot of people going to the Olympics. Just curious, what country will they be representing? The state of delusion?”
