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Not allowing states to regulate artificial intelligence would be “dangerous,” Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown said Thursday.

House Republicans surprised tech industry watchers and outraged state governments when they added a clause to Republicans鈥� signature 鈥溾�� tax bill that would ban states and localities from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade.

The brief but consequential provision, tucked into the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s聽, would be a major boon to the AI industry, which has lobbied for uniform and light touch regulation as tech firms develop a technology they promise will transform society.

Brown and more than three dozen attorneys general are聽speaking out against the idea.

鈥淎t the pace technology and AI moves, limiting state laws and regulations for 10 years is dangerous,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淚f the federal government is taking a back seat on AI, they should not prohibit states from protecting our citizens.鈥�

AI clause faces long odds in the Senate

While the clause would be far-reaching if enacted, it faces long odds in the U.S. Senate, where procedural rules may doom its inclusion in the GOP legislation.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know whether it will pass the Byrd Rule,鈥� said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, referring to a provision that requires that all parts of a budget reconciliation bill, like聽, focus mainly on the budgetary matters rather than general policy aims.

鈥淭hat sounds to me like a policy change. I鈥檓 not going to speculate what the parliamentarian is going to do but I think it is unlikely to make it,鈥� Cornyn said.

Senators in both parties have expressed an interest in artificial intelligence and believe that Congress should take the lead in regulating the technology. But while lawmakers have introduced scores of bills, including some bipartisan efforts, that would impact artificial intelligence, few have seen any meaningful advancement in the deeply divided Congress.

An exception is a bipartisan bill expected to be signed into law by President Donald Trump next week that聽聽on the distribution of intimate 鈥渞evenge porn鈥� images, both real and AI-generated, without a person鈥檚 consent.

鈥淎I doesn鈥檛 understand state borders, so it is extraordinarily important for the federal government to be the one that sets interstate commerce. It鈥檚 in our Constitution. You can鈥檛 have a patchwork of 50 states,鈥� said Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican. But Moreno said he was unsure if the House鈥檚 proposed ban could make it through Senate procedure.

The AI provision in the bill states that 鈥渘o state or political subdivision may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems.鈥� The language could bar regulations on systems ranging from popular commercial models like ChatGPT to those that help make decisions about who gets hired or finds housing.

State regulations on AI鈥檚 usage in business, research, public utilities, educational settings and government would be banned.

The congressional pushback against state-led AI regulation is part of a broader move led by the Trump administration to do away with policies and business approaches that have sought to limit聽.

Half of all U.S. states so far have enacted legislation regulating AI deepfakes in political campaigns, according to a聽聽from the watchdog organization Public Citizen.

Most of those laws were passed within the last year, as incidents in聽聽in 2024 highlighted the threat of lifelike AI audio clips, videos and images to deceive voters.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener called the Republican proposal 鈥渢ruly gross鈥� in a social media post. Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, authored landmark legislation last year that would have created first-in-the-nation safety measures for advanced artificial intelligence models. The bill was vetoed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fellow San Francisco Democrat.

鈥淐ongress is incapable of meaningful AI regulation to protect the public. It is, however, quite capable of failing to act while also banning states from acting,鈥� Wiener wrote.

Bipartisan group of state attorneys send letter to Congress

A bipartisan group of dozens of state attorneys general, including Washington’s Nick Brown, also sent a to Congress on Friday opposing the bill.

鈥淎I brings real promise, but also real danger, and South Carolina has been doing the hard work to protect our citizens,鈥� said South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, a Republican, in a statement. 鈥淣ow, instead of stepping up with real solutions, Congress wants to tie our hands and push a one-size-fits-all mandate from Washington without a clear direction. That鈥檚 not leadership, that鈥檚 federal overreach.”

As the debate unfolds, AI industry leaders are pressing ahead on research while competing with rivals to develop the best 鈥� and most widely used 鈥擜I systems. They have pushed federal lawmakers for uniform and unintrusive rules on the technology, saying they need to move quickly on the latest models to compete with Chinese firms.

Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, testified in a Senate hearing last week that a 鈥減atchwork鈥� of AI regulations 鈥渨ould be quite burdensome and significantly impair our ability to do what we need to do.鈥�

鈥淥ne federal framework, that is light touch, that we can understand and that lets us move with the speed that this moment calls for seems important and fine,鈥� Altman told Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican.

And Sen. Ted Cruz floated the idea of a 10-year 鈥渓earning period鈥� for AI at the same hearing, which included three other tech company executives.

鈥淲ould you support a 10-year learning period on states issuing comprehensive AI regulation, or some form of federal preemption to create an even playing field for AI developers and employers?鈥� asked the Texas Republican.

Altman responded that he was 鈥渘ot sure what a 10-year learning period means, but I think having one federal approach focused on light touch and an even playing field sounds great to me.鈥�

Microsoft鈥檚 president, Brad Smith, also offered measured support for 鈥済iving the country time鈥� in the way that limited U.S. regulation enabled early internet commerce to flourish.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of details that need to be hammered out, but giving the federal government the ability to lead, especially in the areas around product safety and pre-release reviews and the like, would help this industry grow,鈥� Smith said.

It was a change, at least in tone, for some of the executives. Altman had testified to Congress two years ago on the need for AI regulation, and Smith, five years ago, praised Microsoft鈥檚 home state of Washington for its 鈥渟ignificant breakthrough鈥� in passing first-in-the-nation guardrails on the use of facial recognition, a form of AI.

Ten GOP senators said they were sympathetic to the idea of creating a national framework for AI. But whether the majority can work with Democrats to find a filibuster-proof solution is unclear.

鈥淚 am not opposed to the concept. In fact, interstate commerce would suggest that it is the responsibility of Congress to regulate these types of activities and not the states,鈥� said Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican.

鈥淚f we鈥檙e going to do it state by state we鈥檙e going to have a real mess on our hands,鈥� Rounds said.