Uphold States’ Rights to Protect from Franken AI

America is hurtling down the tracks like a runaway train in its pursuit of dominance in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Even some of its most prominent developers express concern about the headlong rush to develop ever more powerful, and even dangerous, technology.

In its haste to stay ahead of competition from Communist China, the federal government is ignoring decisions tech companies are making that threaten to create a digital monster – think of it as “FrankenAI” – capable of imposing centralized control over every American, grievously impacting our freedoms, rights and privacy.

It appears that matters are about to be made worse by an amendment to the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which narrowly passed in the House of Representatives in May and as of this writing, is currently before the Senate. Over the coming days, this amendment will likely be the subject of debate between the House and Senate, before the Big Beautiful Bill lands on the desk of President Trump.

Specifically, the Big Beautiful Bill included an amendment that would have created a ten-year prohibition on the enforcement of any state regulations that could protect against FrankenAI. This amendment has been modified in the Senate to bring the prohibition down to five years and provide certain narrow exceptions. This Senate modification does not solve the problems posed by the original amendment.

State-level officials and legislators across the country share my concerns about this provision. We rightly regard it as a direct affront to state’s rights under the Constitution’s Article 10. Notably, a bipartisan group of 40 state attorneys general have sent a scathing letter to Congress warning against the ban, stating in part:

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The impact of such a broad moratorium would be sweeping and wholly destructive of reasonable state efforts to prevent known harms associated with AI….In the absence of federal action to install [needed] oversight, over the years, states have considered and passed legislation to address a wide range of harms associated with AI and automated decision-making.

These include laws designed to protect against AI-generated explicit material, prohibit deep-fakes designed to mislead voters and consumers, protect renters when algorithms are used to set rent, prevent spam phone calls and texts, require basic disclosures when consumers are interacting with specific kinds of AI, and ensure identity protection for endorsements and other AI-generated content.

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A bipartisan group of over 260 state lawmakers from all 50 states have also urged Congress to reject the Artificial Intelligence moratoriam, stating: “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.” A group of 17 State Governors has followed suit.

In addition to being problematic from a policy perspective, the House-passed moratorium on states regulating AI violates Senate “Byrd rule.” So, Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Marsha Blackburn have proposed an amendment to finesse that problem. This proposed amendment would reduce the moratorium from 10 years to five, and provide certain carveouts such as protecting children’s online safety and addressing unfair or deceptive practices.

AI is advancing at such a rate of speed that reducing the moratorium from 10 years to five does not address the core problems outlined in this letter.

Please join these state officials and legislators and our Sovereignty Coalition in demanding that your Representatives reject both the FrankenAI amendment in the Big Beautiful Bill and the Cruz/Blackburn amendment intended to salvage it in the Senate.
Resources:

AG's Letter
https://www.doj.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt721/files/inline-documents/sonh/letter-to-congress-re-proposed-ai-preemption-_final.pdf?

260 State Lawmakers
https://statescoop.com/state-lawmakers-push-back-federal-proposal-limit-ai-regulation/?