Legislation aimed at making it harder to regulate AI and computing technology has quietly begun to make its way through state legislatures. Conveniently, these so-called computing rights laws are emerging as some of the world’s largest companies race to build massive new data centers.
Montana became the first state to pass such a law in April. But as noted by AI and business news outlet VKTR, lawmakers in other states, including New Hampshire, Ohio, and South Dakota, are also considering similar bills. Meanwhile, a similar measure was taken in Idaho, but it failed to move beyond the commission stage.
Montana law states: “Government actions that restrict the ability of private parties to own or use computational resources for lawful purposes violate the people’s fundamental rights to property and freedom of expression and must be limited to what is clearly necessary and to satisfy compelling government interests.”
The bill further broadly defines “computational resources” to cover “any tool, technology, system, or infrastructure, whether digital, analog, existing, or otherwise,” that facilitates computation, data processing, or storage.
Like right-to-work laws, which are framed as protecting individual liberties, critics warn that computing rights laws could actually primarily benefit large corporations by limiting the ability of state and local governments to regulate AI projects.
The Montana law is also nearly identical to a model bill drafted by the National Legislative Exchange Council, meaning it could be easily copied by lawmakers in other areas.
“We hope it will encourage other states to take up this policy to counter fear-based discourse,” R Street Institute senior fellow Adam Thierer said in an online commentary.
The timing is notable. These laws are emerging as companies like Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI pour billions of dollars into AI infrastructure across the United States.
Meta has launched an ad campaign in state capitols in Iowa, California, Utah, Florida and other states, touting data center projects as job creators, The New York Times reported.
However, these projects are not without controversy. Google and Microsoft have scrapped plans for some data centers in Wisconsin and Indiana after local residents protested over environmental concerns, strain on the power grid and rising electricity costs.
At the federal level, President Donald Trump, an ally of AI and business, signed an executive order in December aimed at reining in what his administration describes as overly burdensome state regulations in the name of national and economic security.
Still, states are not completely relenting. VKTR, citing the National Conference of State Legislatures, reported that nearly 40 states have passed or are considering laws restricting how companies can use AI.
