Bipartisan Group of State Lawmakers Condemn Federal AI Preemption Efforts
WASHINGTON, D.C. — While the federal government continues to attempt to preempt state laws on artificial intelligence, state lawmakers across the country who have successfully passed legislation to protect people from AI harms are speaking out against preemption.
Despite the fact that a majority of Americans support regulating AI, the federal government and Big Tech are exploring various options to get rid of state-level AI protections — including by inserting a preemption provision into the NDAA, an annual defense spending bill, or issuing an executive order.
Either scenario would lead to a massive rollback of proactive and bipartisan efforts in states across the country to create common sense guardrails to protect Americans from some of the most obvious harms of AI including non-consensual intimate deepfakes, AI-generated deepfakes in elections, and manipulative AI chatbots.
“Two years ago, no one would have thought an AI chatbot would coach kids to take their lives. We sit here today with that knowledge yet those that took an oath to defend us, are considering a moratorium on any AI regulations, regardless of harm,” said Rep. Brandon Guffey (R-SC), who serves on the South Carolina House of Representatives Committee on AI. “This is done in the interest of the world’s richest companies and at the expense of our children. If we can’t fight to protect the next generation then what hell are we even doing? It makes zero sense to remove the State’s ability to protect our citizens because we all know government works best closest to the people.”
“It’s far past time that we set the record straight on the federal government’s attempts to ban state or local AI regulations,” said Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou (D-MI). “We have repeatedly seen tech companies and federally elected officials on both sides of the aisle claim that it’s impossible for AI companies to keep up with all of the different state regulations. But do you know what regulations we have seen across all 50 states? Bans on AI being used to create sexual content of individuals WITHOUT their consent. Bans on AI being used to purposefully deceive voters, seniors, and children. As of today, Michigan only has a handful of laws on the books that regulate AI; Every single one of them seeks to protect individuals from blatant instances of harassment, deception, or fraud. Instead of joining all 50 states in protecting our constituents, the federal government is telling the American people that they are more interested in protecting big tech CEOs than the very people they were elected to represent.”
“Rep. Tsernoglou and I recently urged state legislators in Michigan to send a bipartisan message to Congress to not to preempt the common-sense AI protections states have already enacted,” said Rep. Matthew Bierlein (R-MI). “In Michigan, our bipartisan deepfake laws, House Bills 4047 and 4048, makes it a crime to create or distribute non-consensual AI-generated sexual images and gives victims meaningful civil remedies. These protections guard people from blackmail, harassment, and other serious harms that AI tools can enable. There is no justification for Congress to wipe out or preempt legislation that is already working to keep our communities safe.”
“State governments are close to the American people; we are first in line to innovate or respond to specific situations and troubleshoot problems that arise in our various geographies,” said Senate Minority Leader Liz Larson (D-SD). Without the ability to respond like this in our states, the average citizen loses the benefit of having representation in local government. In addition, given the increasing co-mingling of large tech firms and the federal government on myriad levels, this proposed moratorium risks transferring decision-making power from state legislatures to an unknown set of dynamics in Washington, which are evolving largely outside of the public eye but certainly as swiftly as the technology itself.”
Public Citizen is tracking bills to regulate AI in our election deepfakes legislation tracker, our intimate deepfakes legislation tracker, and AI in health care coverage decisions tracker. We have model laws on election deepfakes, non-consensual intimate deepfakes, AI in health care coverage decisions, and AI chatbots available for state legislators to use when drafting legislation.
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Emily Leach, eleach@citizen.org.