The case for a comprehensive federal law to oversee AI

Marketplace Tech

American Public Media

Technology, News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

Congress considered 158 bills that mention artificial intelligence over the past two years, according to a count by the Brennan Center for Justice. But zero comprehensive AI laws have been passed. There has been movement by states, however. In Tennessee, for example, the ELVIS Act, which protects voices and likenesses from unauthorized use by AI, became law in March. In Colorado, a law that takes effect in 2026 requires developers of high-risk AI systems to protect consumers from algorithm-based discrimination. But some who fund AI technology say a federal law is needed. That includes Matt Perault, head of AI policy at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Too much AI regulation? Too little? How do we get to just right? From American public media,
0:08.8	this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Stephanie Hughes. 158. That's the number of bills that Congress considered in the past two years that mention AI. That's according to a count by the Brennan Center. Zero. That's the number of comprehensive AI laws that have been passed by Congress. There has been some movement by states. In Tennessee, for example, the Elvis Act
0:39.3	became law last March. It's meant to protect people's voices from unauthorized use by AI.
0:45.4	Meanwhile, in Colorado, a new law goes into effect in 2026. It requires developers of high-risk
0:51.7	AI systems to protect consumers from algorithmic discrimination.
0:55.9	But some who work to fund AI tech say a federal law is needed. That includes Matt Perald,
1:01.9	head of AI policy at the venture capital firm, Andresen Horowitz.
1:05.6	We think it's really important at the current moment to have a national competitiveness
1:10.7	strategy for AI policy.
1:12.4	We're at a sputnik moment right now with the release of DeepSeek. And we're not going to be
1:17.8	able to do that if we have a state-by-state patchwork where companies have to comply with different
1:22.4	laws in different states. Our focus at Andreessen Horowitz is on little tech companies, so small companies
1:29.0	and startups that are at the cutting edge of innovation and we think are going to help to define
1:33.2	the AI products of the future. For those companies, it's particularly challenging for them to try
1:39.2	to figure out how do I comply with a law in California that might conflict with a law in Texas
1:43.6	that might be different from the law in Florida. might conflict with a law in Texas, that might be
1:44.4	different from the law in Florida? Yeah, say more about that. How would navigating a patchwork of
1:48.5	state laws even work when it comes to AI? Like you, yeah, how does it function? That's the question
1:53.8	it doesn't function particularly well. Like if you think about other tech products that you use,
1:57.5	like a messaging service, for instance. If you're located in Baltimore
2:01.1	and I'm located in Durham, North Carolina, and we're sending communications back and forth,
2:05.8	we want that to function seamlessly, regardless of where we live. We don't want to have a different
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