As U.S. states start to react to growing constituent concerns around the risks associated with artificial intelligence use, Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn said moving forward with a federal preemption standard is "imperative."
Earlier this week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a series of bills focused on those concerns — while also vetoing some strict AI conditions legislators hoped for — requiring safeguards around chatbots, labels around the mental risks of social media apps, and tools that require age verification in device maker app stores.
In addition, Utah and Texas have also signed laws implementing AI safeguards for minors, and other states have indicated similar regulations could be on the horizon.
"The reason the states have stepped in, whether it's to protect consumers or protect children, is because the federal government has, to date, not been able to pass any federal preemptive legislation," Blackburn said at the CNBC AI Summit on Wednesday in Nashville. "We have to have the states standing in the gap until such time that Congress will say no to the big tech platforms."
Blackburn has long been a proponent of legislation around children's online safety and regulation of social media, introducing the Kid's Online Safety Act in 2022 that aims to establish guidelines to protect minors from harmful material on the platforms. The bipartisan legislation has passed the Senate with an overwhelming majority, and Blackburn said while big tech companies have worked to hold up the legislation from passage in both chambers, "We are hopeful the House is going to take it up and pass it."
But the concerns that the Act was aimed to address as it relates to social media have now cascaded alongside the rise in AI, Blackburn said.