GOP Plan to Prevent AI Regulation Is Unhinged, Dangerous
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, the Republican-controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee will mark up its budget reconciliation proposal, which includes a dangerous provision that would strip states of their ability to enact and enforce critical safeguards against AI-related harms for the next decade.
In response to the news, Public Citizen’s Big Tech accountability advocate, J.B. Branch, issued the following statement:
“This is an outrageous abdication of Congressional responsibility and a gift-wrapped favor to Big Tech that leaves consumers vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. States across the country, red and blue alike, have taken bold, bipartisan action to protect their citizens. Now that state laws are finally starting to hold AI companies accountable for deepfake child pornography, election disinformation, AI companions targeting minors, and algorithmic abuse, Congress wants to slam the brakes? This isn’t leadership, it is surrendering to corporate overreach and abuse under the guise of ‘protecting American innovation.’
“Congress must ask itself: Will it stand with Big Tech lobbyists, or with the people it was elected to represent? Because millions of constituents across the country are currently protected by state laws that would be gutted under this proposal. Public Citizen urges lawmakers to strike this reckless preemption language from the reconciliation bill and commit to advancing federal AI legislation that builds on, not bulldozes, state-level progress.”