Attorneys general from 35 states and the District of Columbia weighed in Friday against congressional attempts to block state-level AI regulations, warning that letting the technology exist unregulated would have “disastrous consequences” for their residents.
The bipartisan coalition, in a letter sent Tuesday to congressional leaders and led by attorneys general from New York, North Carolina, Utah and New Hampshire, made their position clear: states should retain the right to enact and enforce their own AI protections while federal lawmakers remain gridlocked on the issue.
“Every state should be able to enact and enforce its own regulations regarding AI to protect its residents,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, who spearheaded the effort.
The letter reveals an emerging conflict between state governments and the Trump administration over how to regulate artificial intelligence.
Tech Giants vs. States: The Battle Over Federal Artificial Intelligence Regulation
Major tech companies, such as OpenAI, Google, and Meta, have been advocating for uniform national standards, claiming that a patchwork of different state laws creates unnecessary complexity. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has joined their calls for federal action.
Yet the attorneys general contend that barring existing state laws without Congress actually creating national standards would leave Americans exposed. They cited harms already happening in the real world, including injuries and deaths attributed to the use of chatbots.
“If Congress is serious about grappling with how the emergence of AI creates both opportunities and challenges for our safety and well-being, then the states look forward to working with you on a substantive effort,” the letter said.
Already, states have taken significant measures to rein in AI-related concerns. Several have made it a crime to use the technology to generate non-consensual sexual images. Others have banned AI in political advertising and restricted how insurance companies can use the technology when making coverage decisions in healthcare.
Colorado has enacted some of the most comprehensive legislation to date in preventing AI discrimination in housing, employment, and education sectors. It has received substantial pushback from the tech industry.
California, the home of a number of the nation’s top AI firms, has gone furthest among the states in its regulatory approach. It will require companies starting in 2026 to disclose data behind their AI model training and provide detection tools for identifying AI-generated content.
Large developers such as OpenAI must submit detailed plans explaining how they would seek to mitigate potential catastrophic risks from the most advanced of their models.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has signed onto the multi-state letter despite the potential impact on companies headquartered in his state.
The Battle Over AI Regulation in America
The move to protect state authority is not new. Earlier this year, the Senate voted overwhelmingly, 99 to 1, against a measure that would have blocked state AI laws. That effort collapsed after lawmakers and attorneys general from both parties united in opposition.
This time, the stakes seem higher. President Donald Trump weighed in personally last week, asking Congress to include a ban on state AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act. The administration, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke with Reuters, has weighed tougher measures, including leveraging federal authority to sue states or withhold funding to compel compliance with a federal approach. Those efforts were put on ice, at least as of Friday.
Emphasizing that their states are already experiencing real-world consequences of AI technology, they cannot afford to wait on the federal government for legislation that may never come. They argue their laws represent practical responses to genuine problems affecting their constituents.
With major state regulations set to begin in 2026, the window for a resolution is narrowing. Whether AI regulation in America follows a decentralized state-by-state approach or a unified national framework, and whether any meaningful regulations exist at all in the near term, will likely be determined by how this conflict gets resolved.
For now, the coalition of state attorneys general is making clear they won’t back down without a fight, viewing their regulatory authority as essential to protecting residents from potential AI-related harms while Washington debates what comprehensive federal standards should look like.
