Parents Groups, Unions, Artists, Environmentalists, Educators & More Demand that Congress Leave State AI Safeguards Alone
Washington, D.C. — On Wednesday, a coalition of more than 250 organizations sent a letter asking Congress to oppose adding a ban on state AI laws to a must-pass defense spending bill. The letter warns that banning commonsense AI safeguards enacted by states would leave Americans totally unable to hold AI companies accountable if their algorithms harm anyone, including children. Multiple polls show that an overwhelming majority of voters want accountability and government oversight for AI companies. Convened by Demand Progress, the letter is signed by Mozilla, SAG-AFTRA, the Children’s Advocacy Institute, Friends of the Earth, the Tech Oversight Project and many more. Demand Progress also led a campaign opposing a previous effort to sneak an AI moratorium into must-pass funding legislation.
“The only people who want to ban states from enacting AI safeguards are Big Tech executives and the allies they bought in Congress and the White House,” said Emily Peterson-Cassin, policy director at Demand Progress. “Congress already overwhelmingly rejected this kind of ban, and poll after poll shows that the American people want to hold AI companies accountable. And it’s no surprise why. AI companies have already unleashed chatbots that were allowed to have sexual conversations with kids and that contributed to multiple teen suicides. Congress must step up again and stop AI companies from getting a free pass to keep hurting people without any accountability.”
“Protections for civil rights and children’s privacy, transparency in consumer-facing chatbots to prevent fraud, and other safeguards would be invalidated, even those that are uncontroversial,” stated the letter. “The resulting unfettered abuses of AI or automated decision systems could run the gamut from pocketbook harms to working families like decisions on rental prices, to serious violations of ordinary Americans’ civil rights, and even to large-scale threats like aiding in cyber attacks on critical infrastructure or the production of biological weapons.”