SCOOP: Lawmakers to Introduce Bill Preempting Some State AI Regulations for Three Years

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Two House members plan to introduce a bill developing a federal standard on artificial intelligence that for a period of three years will preempt state limits on the development of AI, according to a copy obtained by The Daily Signal.

Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., will introduce the bill answering the White House’s call to develop a federal AI standard.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Dec. 11 ordering the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to recommend federal AI legislation preempting any state laws in conflict with the administration’s policy on artificial intelligence. The White House released an draft framework in March to provide a template for federal legislation. 

Obernolte and Trahan’s bill could serve as a vessel for passing the first federal AI standard, although Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., has also made a bid to be the author of the first official framework. Her version contains strict child safeguards.

The 260-page House bill includes no mentions of protection for children, but a spokesperson for Obernolte said the congressman intends for child protections to be enacted in separate legislation. Obernolte supports Congress passing multiple bills to accomplish the various aspects of the White House’s framework.

If the bill passes, no states will be able to “establish, continue in effect, or enforce any law or regulation specifically regulating the development of any artificial intelligence model.”

Some critics of that approach have argued that states present a first line of defense against threats posed by AI chatbots to children.

The bill does not limit state laws “applicable to activities occurring upon or after the deployment of an artificial intelligence model.”

The president recently signed an executive order “asking some artificial intelligence companies to give the federal government 30 days to review their frontier models before release.”