Tech Policy Press

merican AI policy in 2025 will almost certainly be dominated, yet again, by state legislative proposals rather than federal government proposals. Congress will have its hands full confirming the new Trump administration, establishing a budget, grappling with the year-end expiration of Trump’s earlier tax cuts, and perhaps even with weighty topics like immigration reform. Federal AI policy is likely to be a lower priority. Thus, statehouses will be where the real action can be found on this vital topic.

In 2024, state lawmakers introduced hundreds of AI policy proposals. Only a small fraction passed, and of those, the vast majority were fairly anodyne, such as creating protections for malicious deepfakes or initiating state government committees to study different aspects of AI policy. Few constituted substantive new regulations. An AI transparency bill in California and a civil-rights-based bill in Colorado are notable exceptions.

In the coming year, expect to see far more major, preemptive AI regulatory proposals. These will look more like European Union regulations than the more modest US proposals that predominated in 2024.