The Washington Post published “America Can’t Wait 10 Years to Regulate AI,” an op-ed by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on how states are leading the way on smart AI protections and the dangers if Congress prevents those regulations from going into effect for 10 years:
President Donald Trump’s one, big, beautiful bill will be a win for the American people by cutting taxes, moving welfare recipients off the path to dependency and onto the path to prosperity, growing the economy, and helping secure the border. As a conservative governor and strong supporter of the president, I stand in support of his signature legislation.
There is one very small portion of the bill that was added by Congress that would have unintended consequences and threatens to undo all the great work states have done to protect our citizens from the misuse of artificial intelligence: The act would ban state-level AI protections for at least a decade. Congress should strip this provision from the bill before it goes to President Trump’s desk to preserve federalism — and protect our country from completely unregulated AI.
In just the past year, states have led on smart regulations of the AI industry that simultaneously protect consumers while also encouraging the growth of this ever-developing and critical sector. AI can be a great tool for individuals, businesses and governments, but there have to be common-sense safeguards in place. In Arkansas, our legislature created basic copyright guidelines for generative AI, protected Arkansans from the nonconsensual use of their likenesses and, most importantly, prohibited the creation of sexually explicit AI images of real people — especially children. States like Tennessee, Illinois and Utah have created similar guidelines. These are changes that every state and Congress should get behind.
As it’s currently drafted, though, the bill would completely stop these basic protections from going into effect for 10 years, and we instead would wait for some as-yet-unwritten regulations to come from Congress. If Congress’s glacial movement to protect kids from the harms of social media is any indication, the body would be paralyzed by industry lobbying and fail to act. And as that debate went on, states like Arkansas would be unable to ban AI child pornography for a full decade. That’s unacceptable.
AI is already deeply entrenched in American industry and society. Over the next decade, this novel technology will change in ways we can’t even begin to predict. It is expected to drastically alter whole industries, jobs and ways of life, and rebuild how we as a people function in profound and fundamental ways. Americans are at risk from bad actors in the AI industry until lawmakers are allowed to establish basic rules and fairness — and 10 years is too long to wait.
That Congress proposes to strip away the right of any state to regulate AI is the antithesis of what our founders envisioned when they established our federal system.
State leaders fully recognize that AI dominance is the next front in industrial competition between the United States and adversaries such as Communist China. Arkansas has led on anti-Communist Chinese action, becoming the first state in the nation to kick a Communist Chinese-affiliated company off our farmland and following up this year with comprehensive bans on Chinese-owned companies from owning property around critical infrastructure and military bases — something Congress would do well to implement nationally.
As we compete with China, we cannot sacrifice the health, safety and prosperity of our own people. We must curb AI’s worst excesses while also encouraging its growth, which is exactly what states have done through the creation of their own regulatory frameworks.
Thankfully, Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) are staunchly opposed to the inclusion of this provision in the final package, and Sen. Hawley has promised to force a vote on the issue on the Senate floor. I am asking all senators to join them in that fight.
This bill will be one of President Trump’s proudest legislative achievements. It will power his vision of American greatness. But it should not include a provision that takes away states’ ability to protect its citizens. Congress should continue to allow states to function as the laboratories of democracy they were intended to be.
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