New regional teams will support responsible AI policy in the states
As state legislatures increasingly consider AI policy and regulation, Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) today is launching a dedicated state-level advocacy initiative to help lawmakers navigate rapidly evolving AI policy. The new program, which will be supported by a dozen new staff, will advocate for AI policy in all 50 states. The initiative will address frontier AI risks and threats to workers, children, and families, while offering a public-interest perspective on a wave of industry-backed proposals.
“To succeed in passing the guardrails necessary to sustain AI innovation while protecting the public interest, the state arena can no longer be treated as a secondary front,“ said ARI President Brad Carson. “Industry actors understand this, which is why they are investing heavily and moving fast. A proactive state operation can help responsible legislators get ahead of industry campaigns, produce durable and constitutionally sound law, and demonstrate that the responsible AI community is a serious player in every arena where the future of AI governance is being decided.”
In support of the initiative, ARI this week will start hiring for two new roles, with additional state policy, communications, and operations roles to be announced in the months ahead. The new initiative will give ARI a permanent presence in state capitals across America to better focus on identifying emerging legislation across the nation, providing policy expertise to lawmakers and supporting responsible AI guardrails in states where key debates are underway.
ARI’s state-level initiative will build on the organization’s existing federal advocacy, policy expertise, and coalition work. ARI has already worked with state lawmakers on a variety of fronts, including to advocate for greater community stewardship of data centers and to defeat federal preemption efforts.
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