US states step up AI rule-making amid federal lag

Significance

One of New York’s two bills will require parental consent for children to access algorithm-driven social media feeds; the other will ban AI-powered creation and use of replicas of actors' voices and likenesses without permission -- a concern for Broadway, illustrating how much of state AI legislation focuses on local concerns.

Impacts

• AI firms will worry in particular about ethically-driven regulation in bellwether regulatory states such as California and New York.
• Regulators will continue to lag businesses' rapid adoption of AI.
• The National Conference of State Legislatures’ AI and privacy working group will foster legislative commonality across states.
• In the short term, federal AI regulation will involve figuring out how existing laws apply to AI rather than passing new ones.