States are racing to legislate AI as the tech outpaces federal action, report shows
As artificial intelligence continues to rapidly reshape daily life, new research from the Council of State Governments showed in a report published Wednesday that states are not waiting for the federal government, but developing policies and laws to manage AI’s opportunities and risks.
The new report, the third edition of the nonprofit’s 50-State Scan, illustrates a constantly shifting landscape in which state leaders are learning how to govern a technology that touches everything from public benefits to criminal justice. And with Congress still debating on national AI legislation, the report shows how governors and legislatures have attempted to fill gaps.
State policymakers, researchers wrote, have introduced thousands of bills aimed at regulating and guiding AI’s use across areas like cybersecurity, data sharing, employment, health care, higher education, housing and manufacturing since ChatGPT’s public release in 2022. Several states, like California and Colorado, are also crafting laws to guide how agencies deploy AI tools, especially when the outputs those tools produce could affect people’s rights or access to services.
“In 2025 alone, states and U.S. territories proposed 252 AI-related measures, supporting its status as a top legislative priority,” the report reads.
The Senate voted last July to remove from the budget bill a proposed moratorium on states enforcing their own AI laws. President Donald Trump posted on social media this week, though, calling on Congress to once again pass legislation to block state-level AI regulation in favor of a single federal standard, warning that a patchwork of state rules threatens U.S. innovation and global competitiveness.
“We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes. If we don’t, then China will easily catch us in the AI race. Put it in the NDAA, or pass a separate Bill, and nobody will ever be able to compete with America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday.
The CSG report also highlights AI’s risks and possibilities. Officials cited in the research emphasized the continued need for human oversight, thoughtful policies to prevent biased algorithms and strategies to combat the environmental strains of data centers used to power AI tools.
