Love it or hate it, the AI moratorium will be back

The tech industry just came within hours of one of its most audacious moves in Congress yet: using the GOP’s megabill to block states from enforcing their laws on artificial intelligence for a decade. The House passed the AI moratorium as part of its megabill, and the Senate almost followed suit. At the last minute, the upper chamber stripped out the moratorium with a 99-1 vote after a compromise between Sens Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) fell apart. But the near-passage of the sweeping measure showed the increasing muscle of the tech lobby and its drive to preempt state AI law even as there are no federal standards in place. Nicole Gill, executive director of Accountable Tech, a nonprofit favoring stricter rules on tech platforms, described the moratorium as a power grab by the industry. “Their business model is 100 percent predicated on not being regulated,” Gill said. “They don’t have survival plans without that.”