In the absence of action on a federal level, states have been passing dozens of their own laws regulating artificial intelligence – creating guidelines for child safety, requiring more transparency from the technology and ensuring whistleblower protections.
But state lawmakers – including those in President Trump's party – are facing pushback from the White House. Trump and his advisors, including AI and crypto czar David Sacks, have argued that various state laws are a burden to innovation.
"We want to create an environment where innovators have certainty about the way that they can develop their products and it's something only congress can provide," Michael Kratsios, the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said earlier this week. "The first step is to create one national framework so we can avoid a patchwork."
The White House recently released a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence that the administration wants Congress to enact.
The "patchwork" of state laws is something the administration – including the president himself – has been repeatedly critical of, so much so that they've gotten involved in the work some states are doing on AI, even when it's led by Republicans.
State Rep. Doug Fiefia, R-Utah, proposed a bill in his state's legislature earlier this year. It was meant to require technology companies to be more transparent about how they were going to protect consumers.
But the bill never even made it for a vote – thanks to intervention from the Trump administration that came as a one-line memo, he said.
"They basically mentioned that they're opposed to the bill and viewed the bill as unfixable and was against the administration's AI agenda," Fiefia said.
There wasn't any explanation provided on what that meant. A White House official, speaking on background because they are not authorized to do so publicly, told NPR that the White House has never told a state it cannot enact child safety protections, though they did not specifically comment on the memo sent to Fiefia.
Fiefia, a former Google employee, says the memo wasn't a "huge shocker" because he had already been hearing concerns about his bill from the Trump administration. And he said the issue of AI regulation should involve state and federal lawmakers – but there are limits on what Congress can do.
"Congress is in a gridlock and they not only will not act, they can't act. In states like Utah we see this as an opportunity to step forward and protect our constituents and our citizens, especially as it relates to child safety," Fiefia said.
Similar approaches
Other Republican state lawmakers are taking the same approach.
"I am mildly interested in what the federal government's doing at this point. I mean, I'm sorry. It just takes too long," State Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, a Pennsylvania Republican, said. "I think states are the first ones to see when there's a problem and they have the ability to pivot and act quickly. So we're going to continue doing what we're doing."
Pennycuick has sponsored legislation regulating AI, including the recent SAFECHAT Act in the state, which requires AI companies to include safeguards to prevent chatbots from providing content that encourages self-harm or violence to oneself or others.
In Texas, State Sen. Angela Paxton, a Republican, is doing similar work.
"We don't want to have the patchwork of regulatory structures … in general that's a good rule of thumb," Paxton said. But she says tech companies don't have a good history of regulating themselves.
"When you have no regulation, what you have is the wild west," she said. "I like the idea of there being strong federal legislation but until that exists, I think we have to preserve the ability of states to pass laws."
The White House's framework outlines some principles in how the Trump administration wants Congress to move on the rapidly changing technology, including protecting children from harm and consumers from rising costs of data centers.
Mixed reaction
The reaction has been mixed from lawmakers and experts who say it's good to have one set of rules but find the White House framework lacking in detail.
Riki Parikh, policy director at the non-profit Alliance for Secure AI, said the framework isn't specific enough on issues such as the potential role of the technology in job replacement. It also doesn't do enough to hold technology companies accountable.
"A federal standard is better than a 50-state patchwork," Parikh said. "But what they are proposing here is not sufficient. It does not earn the right to replace the good work states are doing."
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti sees the administration's framework as a move in the positive direction. He's more optimistic about the White House's action on this framework compared to previous moves; he was specifically concerned about the White House's push last year for a 10-year moratorium on state AI laws, a move technology companies saw as favorable.
"If you had a 10-year lockout of anybody with enforcement authority and the will to use it, who knows what would've happened," Skrmetti said. "That was really, genuinely scary."
The efforts on that moratorium from the White House and allies such as Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas ultimately failed. Still, Skrmetti remains concerned about Trump's closeness with the AI industry.
That sentiment is mirrored in how the public feels about AI, as well. A January survey by Morning Consult and the Tech Oversight Project showed that a majority believe the Trump administration is too close to Big Tech. Recent polling by Vanderbilt University also shows that even more Republicans than Democrats favor regulating artificial intelligence.
On Capitol Hill, there has been support for the president's framework from his Republican allies, but actual movement on legislation is still pending.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, said she is in touch with the White House about her TRUMP AMERICA AI Act, a bill that widely expands on the four-page framework from the White House.
"By releasing a national framework on AI, the Trump administration gave us a roadmap for crafting legislation, and now it is Congress' turn to pass a bill that will codify the President's agenda, protect Americans, and unleash AI innovation," Blackburn said in a statement.
The White House says it continues to have "productive conversations" with legislators.
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