The Big Beautiful Bill’s Moratorium on AI Regulation Is Dangerous – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

Buried within the U.S. House’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” lies a provision that should alarm every American concerned about protecting our children and communities from the negative impacts of artificial intelligence. The bill contains language that prohibits any state or locality from enforcing “any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.”

The scope of this immunity is breathtaking. The legislation defines “artificial intelligence system” as “any data system, software, hardware, application, tool, or utility that operates, in whole or in part, using artificial intelligence.” This means that if a platform uses AI in any capacity — no matter how minimal — no state or local law intended to regulate AI, whether currently existing or to be enacted over the next decade, can touch it. (RELATED: The AI Component of ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Needs Scrutiny)

The House bill includes language to suggest that a generally applicable law may be enforced if it is imposed on non-AI systems as well as AI systems. This provision, however, ignores AI’s unprecedented power and novelty, and defangs local lawmakers’ ability to legislate according to risks presented. The Senate’s proposal is substantively the same, though rather than a blanket moratorium, it bribes states to forgo enforcement of AI-related laws as a condition for receiving millions under the Federal broadband program. (RELATED: Self-Reliance: The Lost Trail of Silicon Valley)

Deregulated Platforms Are Already Hazardous

Meanwhile, legitimate concerns are being raised over AI: algorithm-controlled social media feeds that harm vulnerable users, chatbots that can encourage teenagers to commit suicide, applications that tell confused young people they are the opposite sex, chatbots that generate fake images or defamatory content, and autonomous drones capable of killing. If a state or locality wants to regulate any of these, it will be prevented. For an entire decade.

Over the past several years, members of both parties have called for curtailing the immunity for internet platforms in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The One Big Beautiful Bill’s AI regulation moratorium is Section 230 immunity on steroids.

While the One Big Beautiful Bill abdicates on AI, Vice President JD Vance has expressed concerns about AI’s impact on young Americans. Vance worries about “millions of American teenagers who are talking to chatbots who don’t have their best interests at heart.” He notes that even well-intentioned chatbots designed to “give you a dopamine rush” could make normal human interactions seem less satisfying by comparison, as “human beings have wants and needs” that chatbots don’t. (RELATED: Mom, Meet My New AI Girlfriend)

In The Anxious Generation, author Jonathan Haidt presents compelling evidence that algorithmic social media platforms have significantly damaged young people’s mental health. Haidt documents how these platforms, driven by AI recommendation engines, have contributed to unprecedented rates of anxiety, depression, and self-harm among teenagers — particularly girls. Haidt’s research demonstrates why we need targeted regulation of AI systems that interact with vulnerable populations, not blanket immunity. (RELATED: Kids Don’t Need to Be ‘Dancing With Robots’ in School)

For those desiring to avoid a legal patchwork that would inhibit the growth of this new industry, the proper course would be to enact a national regulatory framework. Expecting Congress, however, to craft federal AI legislation to protect vulnerable citizens is wholly unrealistic. Consider Congress’s failures on controversial topics over the past decade — tackling immigration and budget deficits being prime examples. With Congress as divided as it is, meaningful federal action to address AI’s abuses is highly unlikely.

This is precisely the time when states and localities — the “laboratories of democracy” — should be allowed to experiment. Some states might focus on protecting minors from manipulative AI systems, others on combatting AI-generated misinformation during elections, others on limiting the state’s use of autonomous killing drones, others on protecting privacy and reputational harm from deepfakes, and others who go after AI-enabled money launderers and human traffickers. Even the Vatican has observed the need to ensure the proper development of AI, recently suggesting that “[r]egulatory frameworks should ensure that all legal entities remain accountable for the use of AI and all its consequences, with appropriate safeguards for transparency, privacy, and accountability.”

The 10-year moratorium would prevent these efforts and would leave Americans defenseless against AI’s abuses.

Congress should reconsider this misguided provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill. Winning the AI race should not come at the expense of harming our children and communities. They deserve protection, not a decade-long regulatory holiday for today’s AI utopians marching under the acceleration banner. If federal lawmakers cannot enact national policy to protect the vulnerable and society, they should let states and localities step into the breach. The stakes are too high, and documented harms too real, to gamble with a blanket moratorium on AI regulation.

Keith Rothfus is an attorney living near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Between 2013 and 2019, he served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania’s Twelfth Congressional District.

READ MORE:

The AI Component of ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Needs Scrutiny

Take the Win on the Big Beautiful Bill