Report from the Transparency Coalition
In Brief – Efforts by officials in Republican-dominated Utah to position the state as a leader in regulating AI faced resistance from the Trump White House, which labeled one AI safety proposal “unfixable” and warned that some measures risked stifling innovation. Top targets were HB 286, which required AI developers to publish safety plans and report incidents affecting Utah children, and B 438, which would regulate companion chatbots designed to simulate ongoing relationships. Both measures eventually stalled in the state Senate. Lawmakers did send several other AI-related bills to Governor Spencer Cox (R). HB 276 creates protections against deepfake intimate images, mandates provenance data for AI-generated content, and establishes civil liability along with notice-and-takedown requirements. SB 256 clarifies that defamation law applies to AI-generated content. HB 289 updates child sexual abuse material statutes to include AI-generated imagery. SB 319 requires human oversight in health insurance preauthorization decisions, while SB 150 limits AI-only treatment in medical practice.
Context – After failing to enact a five-year long federal moratorium on state AI regulation last year, President Trump issued an executive order that calls on federal agencies to “check the most onerous and excessive” state laws in favor of a “minimally burdensome, uniform national policy framework.” The White House sided with industry backers against a handful of Republican Governors who argue that states should be able to regulate the technology to protect their citizens, along with populist conservative activists, including some in Congress, who joined with Democrats who appear united against any federal restriction on AI regulation by states. The second Trump Administration, with a far bigger cohort of tech backers than the first, has pushed US AI policy firmly in the direction of deregulation and investment and pitched AI development as a national imperative to compete with China on economic, strategic and national security grounds. AI regulation in big Red States including Florida and Ohio are at the frontline in the intra-party fight.