GOP sneaks 10-year halt to State-driven AI regulation into budget bill

House republicans are trying to sneak a 10-year pause on AI regulation into the Budget Reconciliation bill. Representative Brett Guthrie (R-KY), who chairs the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, introduced a provision to the Budget Reconciliation bill last Sunday night that will prevent states and local governments from enforcing any legislation on AI. According to 404 Media, this limitation was inserted into an already controversial bill and would take away the power of individual states to regulate artificial intelligence as they would see fit.

The text of the proposal, which is under Title IV, Subtitle C, Part 2c of the bill, says, “In general — except as provided in paragraph (2), no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.” This means that states will lose power over anything related to AI, as they cannot implement their own rules and must follow the federal directive.

Several states have already enacted laws that control the use of AI in their respective territories. For example, California mandates that health care providers must tell their patients if they use generative AI to communicate with them. Furthermore, AI developers in the state must document and publicly share the information about the data they used to train their models — a crucial law to help prevent AI companies from stealing copyrighted data. New York also requires businesses that use AI for hiring to conduct audits of their tools to avoid any bias.

The bill’s text covers a broad spectrum of AI, including models, systems, and even “automated decision systems”. This means that both new AI models and old algorithms that can make automated decisions are covered by the federal law.

Many AI and tech companies have been trying to get closer to the new administration. Several key personalities involved in AI have become key members of the administration, including Elon Musk, former PayPal COO David Sacks, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who has invested in Facebook, Twitter, and OpenAI. The current government has also suspended or reversed former President Biden’s executive orders aimed at reducing the threat of uncontrolled AI development.

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