A Republican effort to stop states from implementing their very own AI laws cleared a key procedural hurdle on Saturday.
The rule, as reportedly rewritten by Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz in an try and adjust to budgetary guidelines, would withhold federal broadband funding from states in the event that they attempt to implement AI laws within the subsequent 10 years.
And the rewrite appears to have handed muster, with the Senate Parliamentarian now ruling that the supply isn’t topic to the so-called Byrd rule — so it may be included in Republicans’ “One Huge, Stunning Invoice” and handed with a easy majority, with out probably getting blocked by a filibuster, and with out requiring help from Senate Democrats.
Nonetheless, it’s not clear what number of Republicans will help the moratorium. For instance, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee lately mentioned, “We don’t want a moratorium that will prohibit our states from stepping up and defending residents of their state.”
And whereas the Home of Representatives already handed a model of the invoice that included a moratorium on AI regulation, far-right Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene subbsequently declared that she is “adamantly OPPOSED” the supply as “a violation of state rights” and mentioned it must be “stripped out within the Senate.”
Home Speaker Mike Johnson defended the supply by saying it had President Donald Trump’s help and arguing, “We’ve got to watch out to not have 50 totally different states regulating AI, as a result of it has nationwide safety implications, proper?”
In a latest report, People for Accountable Innovation (an advocacy group for AI regulation), wrote that “the proposal’s broad language might probably sweep away a variety of public curiosity state laws regulating AI and different algorithmic-based applied sciences, making a regulatory vacuum throughout a number of expertise coverage domains with out providing federal alternate options to switch the eradicated state-level guardrails.”
Quite a lot of states do appear to be taking steps towards AI regulation. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a high-profile AI security invoice final yr whereas signing a variety of much less controversial laws round points like privateness and deepfakes. In New York, an AI security invoice handed by state lawmakers is awaiting Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature. And Utah has handed its personal laws round AI transparency.
