A provision in the reconciliation bill, which President Donald Trump calls the “big, beautiful bill,” prohibits states from regulating Artificial Intelligence, or AI, for a decade.
Section 43201 in the bill says a state cannot enforce “any law or regulation of that State…limiting, restricting, or otherwise regulating artificial intelligence models.”
Sioux Falls State Sen. Liz Larson is one of the state lawmakers leading a nationwide effort to remove the provision. Larson is one of the lead signatories on a letter to Congress urging it to remove the provision.
Over 200 lawmakers across the country have signed the letter, including three from South Dakota.
The Washington Post reports proponents of the provision say it prevents “patchwork” legislation on AI, which could prevent US tech firms from competing effectively with China.
Larson said she understands the concerns over patchwork legislation, but this approach is misguided.
“The patchwork isn’t being created by the states. It’s really the state’s way of trying to fill the gaps of what the feds probably should be doing. It is true that these patchworks do get created. They make things difficult, they make things difficult for business," Larson said. "Those types of patchworks just make it makes us all less efficient as a country. But we’re not the ones that are kind of stopping that. We’re just trying to respond to our constituents."
She added “it’s unfortunate they exist” but without something stronger it forces states to add their own legislation.
If the provision passes the U.S. Senate, South Dakota SB 164 passed during the 100th Legislative Session would be negated. It prohibits the use of a deepfake, or AI-generated images made to look like a person, to influence an election.
Larson was the prime sponsor of that bill. She said with how fast the AI craze is moving, she feels like states are primed to act quickly for their respective constituents.
“I don’t have another bill that’s in my back pocket right now that’s specific to a certain use case of AI. But we do know that AI is increasing in its availability across the world," Larson said. "We are talking about data centers across South Dakota to create the computer capacity, I guess you could say, to do AI. We just don’t know how it’s going to unfold. We shouldn’t be preliminarily tying our hands."
Rep. Dusty Johnson voted yes on the bill. He did not respond to SDPB’s request for comment.
