ACLU Statement on President Trump鈥檚 Unilateral Attack on State Regulation of Artificial Intelligence
WASHINGTON 鈥 Today, President Trump issued an executive order attacking state regulation of artificial intelligence (AI). The order builds on the administration鈥檚 previous efforts, including its 鈥淎I Action Plan,鈥 which directed agencies to ensure that AI development is 鈥渦nencumbered.鈥 The order directs federal agencies to withhold funding from states if they enact regulations that are more than 鈥渕inimally burdensome.鈥 It also establishes a task force to file lawsuits against states鈥 AI regulations and threatens to withhold critical broadband funding.
In response, Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel with the 老熟女午夜福利, issued the following statement:
鈥淧resident Trump鈥檚 executive order doubles down on a dangerous policy that the Republican-led Congress has rejected not once, but twice: displacing states from their critical role in ensuring that AI is safe, trustworthy, and nondiscriminatory. Bipartisan groups of governors, attorneys general, and lawmakers have opposed these efforts for good reason: Although AI might bring substantial benefits, it also carries substantial risks, and America will not win the AI 鈥榬ace鈥 if the AI used by the government, employers, schools, and health care providers is hallucinatory, unreliable, and dangerous. For this reason, it is no surprise that the first attempt at attacking state AI laws was defeated in a landslide 99-1 vote in the Senate.
鈥淢oreover, the executive order is not just dangerous, it鈥檚 unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has made clear that the president may not unilaterally and retroactively change the conditions on federal grants to states after the fact. Each of those grants are an agreement between states and the federal government, and threatening to withhold funds for schools, broadband buildout, nutritional support, and more for unrelated AI policy fights will unnecessarily harm the American people.鈥