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A group of high-profile unions, advocacy groups, non-profits, and academic institutions are warning that a provision in President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” could lead to the “unfettered abuse” of AI.
In a letter to Congress on Monday, 141 organizations called out a provision in Trump’s signature bill that would prohibit states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade. The provision, which Republicans placed into the sweeping tax, immigration, and defense legislation, would be a huge victory for regulation-wary AI companies.
But it would be a nightmare for Americans’ civil rights, the groups argued in their letter, which was addressed to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
“Protections for civil rights and children’s privacy, transparency in consumer-facing chatbots to prevent fraud, and other safeguards would be invalidated, even those that are uncontroversial,” the letter reads.
“The resulting unfettered abuses of AI or automated decision systems could run the gamut from pocketbook harms to working families like decisions on rental prices, to serious violations of ordinary Americans’ civil rights, and even to large-scale threats like aiding in cyber attacks on critical infrastructure or the production of biological weapons,” it continues.
And, the letter added, without state-level regulations on emerging technologies, companies wouldn’t be held accountable.
“This moratorium would mean that even if a company deliberately designs an algorithm that causes foreseeable harm — regardless of how intentional or egregious the misconduct or how devastating the consequences — the company making that bad tech would be unaccountable to lawmakers and the public,” the letter reads.
The letter’s signatories include Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Economic Policy Institute, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, the Alphabet Workers Union, and many others.
The provision would invalidate critical state laws — like those already in effect in New Jersey and Colorado — designed to protect people from the harms created by AI, like algorithmic discrimination, which can affect everything from housing, policing, healthcare, and financial services, the letter argues.
Those harms include “many documented cases of AI having highly sexualized conversations with minors and even encouraging minors to commit harm to themselves and others; AI programs making healthcare decisions that have led to adverse and biased outcomes; and AI enabling thousands of women and girls to be victimized by nonconsensual deepfakes,” the letter says.
Trump’s signature bill, which the House Budget Committee moved forward on Sunday, still has to clear a series of votes in the House before going to the Senate, and the bill’s AI provision has to meet a high bar to remain in the larger bill.
The White House and a representative for Speaker Mike Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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