Autumn Dorsey
China doesn’t need Americans to trust artificial intelligence. Its government can mandate adoption. The United States cannot. Yet some in Washington now argue that the only way to beat China is to weaken the very protections that allow Americans to trust, and therefore, use AI in the first place.
This past summer, the Senate overwhelmingly rejected an attempt to bar states from regulating AI in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, voting 99–1 against national preemption without federal standards. Senators recognized exactly what such a move would mean: letting some of the biggest technology companies run wild. Now, Washington is debating whether to revive this idea.
A national AI preemption without federal standards gives us the worst of both worlds. It allows AI companies to escape accountability for the harms that they have caused while actively hurting U.S. AI competitiveness. We’ve already seen what this kind of hands-off policy looks like. Section 230 effectively left social media companies unaccountable for the damage their platforms inflicted. Now, some want to repeat this mistake with AI, just as public concern about AI risks is starting to reach new heights.
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