The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted to remove a 10-year ban on states’ ability to regulate artificial intelligence from the Trump-backed “Big, Beautiful Bill” early on Tuesday morning.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz initially proposed the “AI moratorium” to the bill, which he and other backers said was needed to avoid blocking innovation in the sector. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, when asked about the moratorium by Cruz during a Senate hearing last month, said he was in favor of a “light touch” from the government and supported less AI regulation.
The proposal received pushback from lawmakers heading into the week, with Cruz and Sen. Marsha Blackburn coming to an agreement last weekend that the ban would be dropped from 10 years to five years; Blackburn then bailed on supporting the ban entirely on Monday.
“The current language is not acceptable to those who need these protections the most,” Blackburn said in a statement to Reuters. “Until Congress passes federally preemptive legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act and an online privacy framework, we can’t block states from making laws that protect their citizens.”
The Tennessee Republican, along with Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell from Washington, proposed an amendment early on Tuesday that stripped the ban from the bill. The Senate then voted 99-1 to remove the AI moratorium.
Removing the ban comes as several industries and both federal and local governments grapple with the rise of AI and how to regulate it. In Hollywood, AI companies scored a big legal victory last week that allows companies to use copyrighted material to train their models; you can read more about that decision and its ramifications by clicking here.
