Congressional bill would block California, other states from regulating AI

California and other states are rushing to regulate the growth of AI but a provision in House Republicans budget reconciliation bill could stop them from doing so for a decade The section of the bill from the House Committee on Capacity and Commerce contains a provision that could stop states and local governments from enforcing any law or regulation on largest part AI application for the next years If enacted this measure would freeze efforts in states including California and Colorado to set guardrails for the expansion and deployment of AI application Republicans argue the moratorium is necessary to give Congress time to pass a comprehensive procedures governing AI and avoid a patchwork of policies And while critics of the moratorium agree a federal law would be better than state-by-state regulations on AI they re skeptical that initiative is coming hastily enough to address a ballooning industry I do think that we should have a debate on what AI guardrails should look like instead of having different pieces of law but Congress isn t doing it Democratic Rep Ami Bera of California reported NOTUS So that s why you see a lot of states enacting different law Congress specifically requirements to come up with a framework Republican Rep Jay Obernolte of California described NOTUS he is confident the moratorium will make it to the final reconciliation bill But he revealed he hopes that comprehensive AI regulation makes it through Congress in months not years The idea is not to have a moratorium the idea is to replace the moratorium with the federal framework with particular preemptive guidelines he noted There s a reason for Bera s and others skepticism No bills comprehensively regulating AI advance have been introduced this Congress And House leadership did not continue the Bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence an effort to help Congress draft AI law this year Specific of the largest tech companies have lobbied Congress to stop states from regulating AI Politico announced Jonathan Mehta Stein chair of the California Initiative for Machinery and Democracy characterized the moratorium in the budget reconciliation bill as a handout to Big Tech This provision gives Big Tech what it wants which is no rules no accountability and billions in profit Mehta Stein stated They aren t passing this moratorium in tandem with comprehensive AI regulations They re just passing a get-out-of-jail-free card from state regulation The moratorium would be particularly pivotal in California Since bulk of the advanced AI labs are located there the California Legislature has an outsized influence in regulating how AI is developed Last year Democratic state Sen Scott Wiener pushed for comprehensive AI provision that was intended to create safeguards for the evolution of frontier AI models in California The bill passed the California Legislature but was vetoed by Gov Gavin Newsom In February Wiener reintroduced a more concise version of the bill meant to create additional protections for whistleblowers and create incentives for responsible AI evolution This type of act would be put on ice under the House budget reconciliation bill The moratorium also could bring unintended consequences critics say It s framed in such an overbroad way that at this moment where every company is saying that they re an AI company it s entirely unclear what sort of aperture the contours this moratorium would end up being Zeve Sanderson founding director of the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics explained NOTUS For example financial services companies might use AI to determine optimal mortgage rates Sanderson noted If the AI ends up using discriminatory practices in its determination states could be unable to enforce law to stop it he explained Obernolte announced that the provision takes this issue into account and that states can still enforce their existing laws on consumer protection even if AI is involved The language is very specifically written to exclude laws that apply broadly and not specifically to just AI Obernolte announced Consumer protection laws that states have already have in place or fraudulent business practices all of those would still be operative and still be enforceable against the deployment of AI This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS a publication from the nonprofit nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute and NEWSWELL home of Times of San Diego Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia