ICYMI: AG Reyes Leads 20-State Letter Asking AI to be Regulated by the People, Not Politics

February 8, 2024 | Last month, Americans for Prosperity Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to compel the Department of Commerce to produce records relating the administration’s planned artificial intelligence (AI) regulations.

This week, attorneys general from 20 states, led by Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes, penned a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo responding to the Department’s request for information on the regulation of AI.

The twenty states that signed the letter are objecting to the Biden Administration’s executive order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, which seeks to centralize governmental control over this emerging technology as it develops in the private sector.

Too often, presidents exploit emergency powers to bypass Congress and implement preferred policy outcomes, subverting our constitutional system of checks-and-balances. The order invokes the Defense Production Act, a war-powers authority, in an unprecedented way to regulate AI development and impose reporting requirements on private developers. In effect, the order transfers major powers over the economy from Congress to the president.

The attorneys general write:

“The issues related to AI are complex and important, but they must be addressed by our constitutional, democratic process, not by executive fiat. The administration should work with Congress and states across the political spectrum to find bipartisan solutions that can help our country harness the power of AI and use it for the good of all, rather than only for one political party or specific groups of people.”

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