Ban on AI regulations that could’ve undermined WA laws ditched from GOP megabill

Washington U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell led a successful push Tuesday to eliminate a proposal inside Republicans’ massive budget bill to dissuade states from regulating artificial intelligence.

The 99-1 vote against the AI provision was a rare bipartisan victory as Republicans steered the megabill across the finish line in the U.S. Senate. The overall legislation will still require House approval before it can be signed into law. In Washington state, existing laws prohibiting deepfakes in political campaigns and fabricated sexual images without consent could have been at risk if Congress moved forward with the restrictions on regulating artificial intelligence.

Other concerns range from replicating a musician’s voice without their permission to protections for children online.

The proposal evolved from a straightforward 10-year ban on state regulation of AI, to tying that ban to billions in federal funding for broadband internet access. States could’ve lost the money if they proceeded with artificial intelligence regulations. Washington stands to receive $1.2 billion from the broadband program, but new guidance from the Trump administration has also thrown state officials for a loop.

In the face of strident opposition from Republican and Democratic leaders at the state and federal levels, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and other Senate Republicans reduced the ban to five years and exempted some statutes in an effort to salvage some version of it. 

Cruz had said President Donald Trump backed the compromise. Proponents fear a patchwork of state and local laws, but Congress has done little to regulate the emerging technology.

In the wee hours Tuesday morning, Cantwell teamed with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., to toss the provision in any form. Only Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., opposed their amendment. Cruz ended up supporting it.

“The Senate came together tonight to say that we can’t just run over good state consumer protection laws,” said Cantwell, a Democrat. “States can fight robocalls, deepfakes and provide safe autonomous vehicle laws. 

“This also allows us to work together nationally to provide a new federal framework on artificial intelligence,” she added.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown was among the dozens of attorneys general urging the Senate not to pass the AI proposal. His office houses a state task force focused on artificial intelligence.

This year, the Washington state Legislature considered bills to require public employers to bargain with unions over the use of artificial intelligence, force generative AI developers to help users detect its use and punish people who digitally create or alter images to show minors engaged in sexual conduct.

Brown has sued a software company accused of using algorithms powered by AI to set rents for residential housing.

The first-term Democratic attorney general also requested the Legislature protect children from artificial intelligence-fed social media applications.

“We have so much opportunity at the state level to move forward and innovate and have new ways to protect our kids and all of our residents,” Brown said last month, “but we want to make sure that we have the ability to do that.”