The States’ Approach to Artificial Intelligence, Explained

Public interest in and concern about artificial intelligence continues to grow, and not just at the federal level. In fact, some state and local governments are moving faster than policymakers in Washington, D.C.

Will this increasingly complex patchwork of regulations protect consumers, slow down AI innovation—or both?

What are the states doing now?

Generative AI—the kind that generates responses to prompts in the form of text, images, and audio—has dominated news coverage since the advent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT last year. Although ChatGPT may have played a role in spurring lawmakers to action, the recent spate of legislation in the states has more to do with older forms of AI and broader concerns about data privacy on the internet. (Some 25 percent of American businesses have already deployed AI in some form, according to a 2022 report by IBM.)