(tnnd) – Common Sense Media is an advocate for online protection for children and teens, and is worried that President Donald Trump’s “one, big, beautiful bill” provision will stop the state from enforcing artificial intelligence protection measures for the next decade.
Last month, a massive bill passed the House of Representatives, including the president’s tax cuts and expenditure priorities. Senate Republicans are currently working on the version in hopes of getting them on Trump’s desk soon.
State-level AI regulations have made both the House and Senate versions of the country into “one, big, beautiful bill.”
And this provision has passed the Senate.
Danny Weiss, Chief Advocacy Officer at Common Sense Media, said his group is concerned that the provisions have more than 50-50 shots when it becomes law.
The house version doesn’t include any provisions relating to the state’s prohibiting implementation of AI regulations, Weiss said.
The Senate version will voluntarily suspend state AI regulations.
But it also condition federal broadband funding on states that prove they have no AI laws enforced.
Weiss said that AI regulations put billions of billions in federal broadband funding.
“Preventing states from regulating AI has nothing to do with the budget. They shouldn’t be in their budget bill,” Weiss said. “The clever move that (the Senate Committee on Commerce) Chair (TED) Cruz made was that he said that what he said was little money related to broadband. But our concern is that it’s not just that it’s really tied to little money.
Cruz says provisions that prevent states from enforcing AI regulations are included in “one, big, beautiful bill” in the name of innovation.
The committee then states that the state should “take measures to prevent an invisible patchwork of different national AI laws and encourage states to adopt common-sense technology-neutral policies.”
Weiss said the provision, the effectively ban, violated the rights of the state.
And he said it would leave the child vulnerable.
“Common sense opposes this provision because there is little protection from the risks and harms that children, teens, families and other consumers know are related to artificial intelligence,” he said. “The state is leading the way.”
Weiss said the state laws they are talking about could range from the required disclosure of AI-generated content to laws that attempt to stop AI from being used to create child sexual abuse material.
Nearly every state has introduced AI laws this year, but 28 states have adopted or enacted more than 75 new measures, according to the National Assembly.
He said Common Sense Media Surveys demonstrates broad public support for state AI regulations.
Almost 60% of Americans opposed the inclusion of a federal ban on state AI regulations as part of a major budget bill.
Seven in 10 said Congress should not ban AI and technical regulations from enacting or implementing them.
Over 90%, including 95% of Republicans, said they were worried that their children are exposed to highly sexually generated content online.
And as AI evolves rapidly, more than 80% of states said states shouldn’t be forced to sit on the sidelines.
Common Sense Media said more than 60,000 people have signed a petition petition petition lawmakers to remove provisions from “one big, beautiful bill.”
Weiss said he hopes the senators will introduce amendments to remove provisions from the bill.
“For better or worse, a lot of people thought this provision would be taken,” Weiss said. “And then, Chair Cruz rewrites the provisions, and it’s in the bill. And to get it out of the bill, you need 51 votes at this point. The majority leader can pull it out to himself before he brings it to the floor.
