US Senate Blocks Decade-Long Ban on State AI Regulation

The US Senate has voted 99-1 to remove a provision from President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ that would have prevented states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade.

The details:

• Senator Ted Cruz proposed the 10-year moratorium, arguing that myriad state and local AI laws would hinder American AI companies competing against China.

• Though gaining support from tech leaders such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anduril’s Palmer Luckey and a16z’s Marc Andreessen, objections from both sides of the house culminated in Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell teaming up to kill the provision.

The response:

• The Human Artistry Campaign – which represents recording artists, songwriters, composers, publishers, independent record labels, journalists, photographers, actors, athletes and more – applauded the decision.

• They claimed the provision would have impeded states from getting transparency about which artistic works were being used to train AI models, and from blocking unauthorized deepfakes.

• Mitch Glazier, Chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, also welcomed the decision.

• In a statement to Music Business Worldwide he said: “Federal and state governments both have a critical role to play in protecting creators while promoting AI innovation. This final vote is a resounding dismissal of the shortsighted, zero-sum game thinking from some tech companies and signifies a widespread recognition that respect for human creativity does not impede winning the AI race, but instead is essential to its success.”