Over a dozen members of the whistleblower community urge Congress to oppose a moratorium on state AI laws.
On Tuesday, a coalition of over a dozen members of the whistleblower community urged Congress to reject a state AI law preemption provision in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The letter, led by the National Whistleblower Center, highlights that AI law preemption poses a threat to whistleblowers inside AI companies and the safeguards they have helped push forward at the state level. The letter also states that federal whistleblower protections, while important, should not be traded for preemption of state laws on AI. The letter includes many former and current employees at leading AI labs, including Jacob Hilton, Daniel Kokotajlo, and Todor Mihaylov Markov.
Read the full letter from the whistleblowing community.
From today’s letter:
“AI whistleblowers have shown courage in raising alarms about risks to children, lack of oversight, and deployment without adequate safeguards. Now is the time to take on the issues they have raised and the risks they pose to everyday Americans. Eliminating state AI laws would fail that test and strip away critical protections for whistleblowers at a time when they are urgently needed.”
New polling from the Institute for Family Studies finds that Americans oppose adding AI preemption to the NDAA by a 3-to-1 margin. Majorities across parties, ages, and income levels reject blocking states from regulating AI.
Last week, a coalition of over 290 state lawmakers wrote to Congress, urging federal lawmakers not to pass a ban on state AI laws. In a separate letter last week, a coalition of faith leaders urged Congress to oppose inclusion of AI law preemption in the NDAA. For a live tracker of lawmakers and thought leaders speaking out against the AI law preemption proposal, visit NoAILawBan.org.
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Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to policy advocacy in the public interest, focused on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Learn more at ARI.us.