Right now, there is a short provision buried in the massive budget bill that would stop states from passing or enforcing any law that regulates AI and any other automated decision making system. This is a provision written purely to benefit tech companies at the expense of actual people. If it were to pass, it would be disastrous for everyday consumers and workers, establish a dangerous precedent for other sectors, and is antithetical to the essential democratic principle of federalism. Congress represents people, not corporations – and it is absolutely essential Senators vote to remove the moratorium provision.

Among many other things, it would prohibit:

• Requirements for companies to disclose when AI is being used for critical hiring and housing decisions
• Requirements for companies to test if their systems even work or if they have discriminatory impacts
• Bans on the use of AI systems to create non consensual intimate imagery
• Controls on how data centers can be built or how states can give tax breaks to tech companies for building them
• Regulation on personalized surveillance pricing that uses your sensitive data to price products or rent unfairly
• Any controls on the use of invasive facial recognition or manipulative “emotion recognition systems”

One of the primary justifications for the ban is that there is a threat of a “patchwork” of different state laws around the country that would be impossible to comply with. This argument is borne out of a speculative fear — while many laws have been introduced, very few have passed. Furthermore, many of those are procedural or supportive of AI development rather than regulating it. Even if there were 50 different comprehensive AI laws passed, it would be Congress’s responsibility to make their own national standard to settle any conflicts, not just stop everyone in their tracks. This is simply the legislative process, and running to Congress to get a blanket ban while these laws are considered is undemocratic.

This moratorium should be  seen as a nonstarter, not a negotiation. It’s a reflection of the failure to take the harms from technology seriously, a theme we’ve seen with social media and data privacy. Congress has failed to regulate AI at the federal level, and this moratorium only amplifies that omission.

You don’t have to take CFA’s word for it, thousands of others are opposed to this galling attempt at overreach, including:

• A bipartisan group of 40 state Attorneys General ”[T]his bill purports to wipe away any state-level frameworks already in place. Imposing a broad moratorium on all state action while Congress fails to act in this area is irresponsible and deprives consumers of reasonable protections.”
• A bipartisan group of 260 state legislators  “In an increasingly fraught digital environment, young people are facing new threats online, seniors are targeted by the emergence of AI-generated scams, and workers and creators face new challenges in an AI-integrated economy…Over the next decade, AI will raise some of the most important public policy questions of our time, and it is critical that state policymakers maintain the ability to respond.”
• 140 Public interest Groups including CFA: “This total immunity provision blocks enforcement of all state and local legislation governing AI systems, AI models, or automated decision systems for a full decade, despite those states moving those protections through their legislative processes, which include input from stakeholders, hearings, and multistakeholder deliberations. This moratorium would mean that even if a company deliberately designs an algorithm that causes foreseeable harm — regardless of how intentional or egregious the misconduct or how devastating the consequences — the company making that bad tech would be unaccountable to lawmakers and the public.”
• House “Freedom Caucus”: “Protect State Federalism in AI. The federal government should not prevent states from being able to regulate artificial intelligence for the next 10 years, something Congress is still actively investigating and does not fully understand the implications.”

You can see a more comprehensive list of what’s been said by lawmakers here. Congress must act swiftly to remove this provision from the budget, and you should urge your Senators to do the same today. You can find contact information for those representatives here.