Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warns that a patchwork of state AI laws causes confusion. But should a single federal rule apply equally to rural towns and tech hubs? How can we balance national standards with local needs? The blanket preemption assumes that all of these communities are best served with no governance of AI or automated decision systems — or, more cynically, that the short-term financial interests of companies that develop and deploy AI tools should take precedence over the civil rights and economic interests of ordinary people.
While there can be a reasoned discussion about what issues need uniform rules across the country and which allow flexibility for state and local officials to set rules (an easy one would be regarding their own procurement of systems), what is being proposed is a blanket ban on state and local rules with no federal regulations in place.
Further, we have not seen, nor are we likely to see, a significant “patchwork” of protections throughout the country. The same arguments were made in the state privacy context as well, by, with one exception, states that have passed identical or nearly-identical laws, mostly written by industry. Preempting state laws to avoid a patchwork system that’s unlikely to ever exist is simply bad policy and will cause more needless harm to consumers.
