States Push AI Laws Forward Despite Trump's Executive
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- Trump issued an executive order directing the attorney general to create a task force challenging state AI laws deemed "minimally burdensome" and threatened to restrict federal broadband and grant funding to states with AI laws, but the White House has taken no visible enforcement action.
- Illinois sent legislation to Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker's desk requiring AI developers to create catastrophe-prevention protocols and submit to independent auditor review of their own compliance — a step analysts call a move toward greater developer accountability.
- Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, and Oregon passed laws this year restricting how AI chatbots interact with people, especially minors; Connecticut's companion chatbot law bars bots from interacting with anyone under 18 unless programmed to discourage self-destructive behavior.
- Colorado in May required companies using AI in employment, education, housing, or banking to notify people when AI influences a consequential decision about them, though the law was watered down from a stronger 2024 anti-discrimination measure under pressure from Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
- Florida's state House refused to advance Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis's AI "Bill of Rights" — with Speaker Daniel Perez citing Trump's stance that AI regulation should be federal — while Utah's progress stalled after the White House sent lawmakers a one-sentence memo stating it was "categorically opposed" to a similar bill.
- Bipartisan state momentum is accelerating: a new bipartisan House draft proposal on AI preempting state laws drew withering criticism from key Democrats and Republicans, even as more state bills — including by Republicans — have been introduced this year than last, according to the Future of Privacy Forum's Justine Gluck.
Why it matters: Trump's executive order aimed to centralize AI rulemaking and protect an industry spending trillions, but the absence of federal action and any visible enforcement has left a vacuum that states — including Republican-led ones — are filling with fragmented but substantive rules on chatbot safety, hiring decisions, and catastrophe prevention.
