A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general unveiled a new nationwide task force last week charged with identifying emerging issues related to AI and developing safeguards to protect the public. The task force is being spearheaded by North Carolina AG Jeff Jackson and Utah’s Derek Brown in cooperation with the Attorney General Alliance.
The launch of the task force marks another step in the widening gulf between states and the federal government over regulating AI. It comes as the White House and Republicans in Congress took steps this week to try to revive federal efforts to head off and override burgeoning state efforts to erect and enforce guardrails around AI.
State lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have introduced hundreds of bills over the past two years aimed at regulating various uses of AI technology while Congress is yet to coalesce around substantive AI legislation.
“AI is moving fast, and so are the risks,” Jackson said in a statement. “Congress hasn’t put basic protections in place, and we can’t wait. As attorneys general, our job is to keep people safe.”
The AG task force will focus on three key efforts, according to the announcement: to work with stakeholders and law enforcement to identify emerging AI issues; to develop safeguards AI developers should follow to protect the public from harm; and to create a standing forum to track developments and coordinate responses.
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“Freedom means being free from manipulation or exploitation by powerful technologies,” Brown said. “This task force is committed to defending our freedoms and our privacy while also building a safer digital world for our families and our children.”
Read more: No Federal Bailout for AI, Says White House Tech Chief
At least two major AI companies, OpenAI and Microsoft, voiced support for the AGs’ initiative. “Microsoft is proud to join the bipartisan AI Taskforce and commends Attorneys General Jeff Jackson and Derek Brown for their leadership,” general manager of state government affairs Kia Floyd said. “This effort reflects a shared commitment to harness the benefits of artificial intelligence while working collaboratively with stakeholders to understand and mitigate unintended consequences.”
The formation of the new task force is not the first time state AGs have clashed with Congress over AI regulations. In May, the National Association of Attorneys General wrote to leaders in the House and Senate urging them remove a proposed 10-year moratorium on state AI laws from the Big Beautiful Bill Congress was then debating.
“The impact of such a broad moratorium would be sweeping and wholly destructive of reasonable state efforts to prevent known harms associated with AI,” the letter signed by 40 state AGs said. “This bill will affect hundreds of existing and pending state laws passed and considered by both Republican and Democratic state legislatures. Some existing laws have been on the books for many years.”
The moratorium provision was ultimately dropped from the budget bill before it reached the president’s desk. But House GOP leadership signaled this week that they will seek to insert the provision into the National Defense Authorization Act, which is generally treated as must-pass legislation, before the end of the year. The Trump administration also confirmed it is drafting an executive order that would direct the Justice Department to challenge state AI laws as an unconstitutional interfering by states in interstate commerce.
Unlike the broadly bipartisan efforts by state legislators and AGs to defend states’ authority to regulate AI, federal efforts to clip the states’ wings has taken on a partisan cast. In a letter to their colleagues this week, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, both of Massachusetts, urged their Democratic colleagues to oppose the Defense authorization bill if it includes the AI moratorium.
“As a massive, bipartisan coalition of governors, state attorneys general, state lawmakers, and advocates across the political spectrum made clear earlier this year, the Republican AI moratorium represents a serious threat to our ability to protect Americans from the harms of AI,” the letter said. “It could block state policymakers from moving forward on basic, bipartisan protections, such as protecting children and teenagers online, combatting deepfakes, slowing electricity price hikes, addressing the environmental impacts of data center buildout.”
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