potential congressional legislation<\/a> that calls for preempting state laws considered \u201ctoo burdensome\u201d but would allow some rules to protect children and copyright material. <\/p>\nNone of these steps has eased the number of proposals in state capitals. Popular ideas include forcing chatbots to remind users they are not human and barring the use of AI to make nonconsensual pornography, which includes replacing or removing clothing from photos that are posted online. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s a lot of state lawmakers looking at what the federal government is doing and saying, \u2018We want to take action because we\u2019re not satisfied,'” said Craig Albright, senior vice president for government relations for the Business Software Alliance, which represents software companies.<\/p>\n
About 8 in 10 people in the United States said they were \u201cconcerned\u201d or \u201cvery concerned\u201d about AI in a Quinnipiac poll last month, with about three-quarters saying government is not doing enough to regulate the technology. Roughly 9 in 10 Democrats and 6 in 10 Republicans wanted more government involvement.<\/p>\n
The most significant regulations have passed in California and New York, solidly Democratic states. The provisions focus on disclosure of catastrophic risk, such as the AI-controlled meltdown of nuclear plants or AI models refusing to heed human direction.<\/p>\n
But there is pressure in Republican-led states, too. <\/p>\n
DeSantis pushed a bill to implement parental controls for minors using AI and to prohibit systems from using anyone’s likeness without permission. It fell short in the state House after overwhelmingly passing the state Senate. AI bills in Republican-controlled Louisiana and Missouri have stalled out because of Trump administration resistance.<\/p>\n
\u2018An army of full-time lobbyists\u2019<\/p>\n
Fiefia is part of a loose network of former tech employees turned state lawmakers trying to meet the demand for stronger regulations. He co-chairs the AI task force of the Future Caucus, a network of younger state lawmakers, with Monique Priestley, a Vermont Democrat who also has worked in tech.<\/p>\n
Priestley said the group uses video conferences and group chats to share ideas for new proposals and deal with lobbyists who oppose their bills. She said that 166 of her state’s 482 registered lobbyists weighed in on her data privacy bill last year, which was ultimately vetoed by the governor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s like you’re running around against an army of full-time lobbyists,\u201d said Priestley. Like many state lawmakers, she works a separate, full-time job. <\/p>\n
Alex Bores, a former data scientist at the tech firm Palantir who quit after it signed a deal to help the first Trump administration with immigration enforcement, is also a member of the AI task force. A Democrat, Bores wrote the New York bill that was signed into law last year.<\/p>\n
Now Bores is competing in the crowded Democratic primary to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler representing the east side of Manhattan and parts of Queen and Brooklyn in Congress, and he is facing payback from the industry. A pro-AI campaign committee has spent $2.3 million against his candidacy.<\/p>\n
Bores said tech companies are trying to make an example of him to scare off more regulation at the state and federal level. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s one reasons it’s so important for me to win this race is because, if I don’t, that intimidation they’re trying on Congress will be successful,\u201d he said. Bores’ competitors in the June 23 primary include Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, and George Conway, a former Republican who has become one of Trump’s chief antagonists on social media. <\/p>\n
From Google to politics<\/p>\n
Fiefia has not attracted the sort of attention as Bores as he tries to move to the state Senate after a single session in the House. The subdivisions and shopping centers of his district are sandwiched between Utah’s jagged mountain ranges and the cul de sacs are crammed with children on bikes and scooters.<\/p>\n
The son of Tongan immigrants, Fiefia grew up in Utah but moved to Silicon Valley, where he worked as a salesperson for Google.<\/p>\n
Fiefia rose to manage a team working with companies on the implementation of Google’s early AI model and was disturbed by what he saw. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I realized is Big Tech cares about their bottom line, and they were worried about making money, not doing right for the human race,\u201d said Fiefia, who now works at a Utah-based cloud computing and AI company.<\/p>\n
Fiefia’s legislation was unanimously passed by a House committee this year, but the Trump administration sent a letter to the Senate saying that the measure was \u201cunfixable.\u201d The measure quickly died. <\/p>\n
Daniel McCay, the state senator who Fiefia is challenging in the primary, said he thinks that was a good thing. <\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been around long enough to recognize the invention of fire, the wheel, cars and the internet did not ruin society and I’m very skeptical of anyone trying to scare society into regulations,\u201d McCay said in an interview.<\/p>\n
He noted that the bill went beyond child safety, including whistleblower protection for AI workers and public disclosure of risks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have driven Utah out of the AI innovation business,” McCay said. <\/p>\n
At the cottage meeting \u2014 the Utah term for a small gathering at someone’s home to discuss important issues \u2014 Fiefia faced several tech-related questions from the crowd.<\/p>\n
Asked about defying the Trump administration, Fiefia said it was especially important to stand up for states’ rights when a fellow Republican was in power to demonstrate the principles involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump administration is, \u2018We want zero regulations on AI,\u2019\u201d Fiefia said. \u201cI think that’s wrong. I agree with a lot of what Trump says on taxes. I disagree with him on this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIVERTON, Utah \u2013 When a dozen Republican activists gathered on a back deck in the Salt Lake City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,6779,25,6778,309,6776,6775,625,6781,1392,6774,6780,6777,6773,464,2192,134,3587],"class_list":{"0":"post-7667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-alex-bores","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-brett-young","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-craig-albright","14":"tag-daniel-mccay","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-doug-fiefia","17":"tag-elections","18":"tag-george-conway","19":"tag-jack-schlossberg","20":"tag-jerrold-nadler","21":"tag-john-f-kennedy","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-ron-desantis","24":"tag-technology","25":"tag-washington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}