Coalition of civil society, tech policy, and voter engagement groups launch MA voter petition campaign urging Rep. Trahan to stop preemption
On Thursday, a coalition of civil society, tech, and voter engagement organizations launched a new voter petition campaign urging Rep. Lori Trahan (MA-03) not to cosponsor legislation banning state AI laws. The petition effort, which has already gathered over 3,800 signatures from Massachusetts voters, is supported by Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI), Demand Progress, Design It For Us, Encode, Indivisible (Acton Area, Massachusetts), and Public Citizen. The latest effort comes on the heels of statements from Massachusetts state lawmakers who have urged the Massachusetts Democrat not to cosponsor preemption legislation.
“Massachusetts state lawmakers have spent years working on safeguards that protect children, families, and workers in the AI era. Freezing those state laws would be a huge mistake, handing Big Tech immunity from accountability,” said ARI VP of Communications Chris MacKenzie. “Thousands of voters in Massachusetts are speaking up because they don’t want another era of ‘move fast and break things.’ We should be looking for ways to put commonsense guardrails in place, not writing industry a blank check.”
“Big Tech CEOs and the White House keep trying to ban states from enacting AI safeguards and Rep. Trahan must not give them what they want,” said Demand Progress AI Policy Advisor Colin McGlynn. “State laws are one of the few defenses we have left against unaccountable AI chatbots that have sexual conversations with children, encourage people in crisis to harm themselves and even give instructions on how to carry out a mass shooting. Rep. Trahan must not put Big Tech profits over the safety of Americans by supporting AI preemption legislation.”
“As a young person based in Massachusetts, I know firsthand the anxieties young people in the state are feeling with unregulated artificial intelligence,” said Kaitlynn Cherry, Policy Lead, Design It For Us. “We cannot allow the federal government to greenlight AI amnesty, especially when states across the country are stepping up to act. We urge Rep. Trahan to heed the calls of young people from Massachusetts and reject any AI legislation that wipes out states’ rights to regulate in this area.”
“There is overwhelming support for stronger guardrails around the development and use of AI,” said Adam Billen, Co-Executive Director, Encode AI. “Massachusetts has been a national leader in addressing AI-related risks. Freezing those efforts now would roll back the hard-won protections Massachusetts lawmakers have established and leave the state’s children, families, and workers more vulnerable to harm from AI now and into the future. We urge Rep. Trahan to put the safety of her constituents ahead of corporate interests and oppose this preemption legislation.”
“Our Congresswoman is negotiating with House Republicans for a federal bill that threatens to wipe out our state’s AI defenses and hand immunity to Big Tech,” said Stella Ko of Indivisible, Acton Area. “If this passes, we lose our ability to protect residents from deepfakes, data breaches, and election interference. This is a line in the sand. We must speak up now to stop it.”
“Big Tech corporations want to end state AI regulation because they know states like Massachusetts have led the way in advancing common-sense safeguards and restraints on Big Tech abuses,” said Public Citizen Co-President Rob Weissman. “They would love nothing more than modest federal rules – which will quickly grow stale and likely not be updated – to stamp out the ability of states to respond quickly to emerging harms from AI and Big Tech. Rep. Trahan cares about protecting kids and consumers – which is exactly why she should immediately abandon any consideration of federal preemption of state AI rules.”
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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.