Another win in court

And - no new A.I. laws for 10 years?

A few weeks ago, I was with my son at a go-kart track when my phone rang.

It was an AG from another state. I picked up and he quickly said, “You need to read page 276 of the House bill that just dropped.”

He was talking about the gigantic, 1,000-page budget bill that is still consuming D.C.’s attention.

It turns out, a few short paragraphs were wedged in there - Section 43,201 - that could wipe out years of consumer protection laws in states across the country.

Here’s the key line:

“[N]o State or political subdivision thereof may enforce, during the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, any law or regulation limiting, restricting, or otherwise regulating artificial intelligence [models].”

In plain English, this means that no state can pass or enforce any A.I. consumer or voter protection laws for the next 10 years.

But what if your state already has those laws on the books?

This provision would seek to ban them.

That means existing laws that block A.I.-generated deepfakes designed to mislead voters, or that prevent scammers from digitally cloning your voice to fool your family, or that ban mass robocalls generated by language models could all potentially get nixed.

Now, the argument in favor of this idea is basically that, instead of having 50 different states go in 50 different directions, Congress should create one national set of safeguards.

I get that. There’s a case for it.

But here’s the problem: Congress won’t do it.

They didn’t do it with the internet, or privacy, or social media - not even to protect kids.

I was in Congress - last year. I watched many thoughtful, bipartisan A.I. bills get filed. Some had overwhelming support and were laser-focused on protecting consumers.

None of them passed. They were all dead on arrival.

And now Congress is saying, “We know we know we know - but this time, we’re gonna do it.”

The thing is, there’s an easy fix here. All they have to do is pass a bill putting up some A.I. safeguards for consumers and voters before they pass a bill that tries to ban all of ours, and then they’ll have a strong position.

But until then, these are massive dice to roll. We all know this technology is going to get exponentially more powerful over the next decade and the thought of having zero safeguards in place for that entire period is truly unnerving.

That’s why 40 attorneys general - including members of both parties - signed a letter opposing it.

I also made a video addressing Congress directly about this. Here it is:

Another win: Americorps

Last time you heard from me, I told you we were filing a lawsuit against the federal administration after it attempted to unlawfully defund AmeriCorps.

Why?

Because Congress authorized AmeriCorps funding, and the executive branch cannot unilaterally cut it.

Moreover, it would have hit western North Carolina especially hard as it’s rebuilding from Hurricane Helene. AmeriCorps has a strong presence there.

Well, we just won an injunction to stop those cuts from happening. That’s good news for WNC.

Supreme Court Investiture

Finally, I had the wonderful opportunity to play a small, formal role in the investiture of our newest state Supreme Court Justice, Allison Riggs.

It was my honor to report to the full court that Justice Riggs had been duly elected and is prepared to take the oath of office.

She then took that oath, and took her seat with her fellow Justices.

Best,

Jeff Jackson

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