Can We Regulate AI? - Dinner to Save America
As AI surges forward, who gets to write the rules?
In June 2025, the U.S. Senate dealt a stunning rebuke to Big Tech’s push for a 10‑year freeze on state AI oversight—voting 99–1 to strip the moratorium from the massive “One Big Beautiful Bill” reconciliation package. This landslide bipartisan vote preserved states’ rights to regulate AI tools related to child safety, deepfakes, data privacy, and more: signaling sharp tension between centralized innovation and decentralized protection. In a fast‑changing world, who should hold the reins on AI?
What should be our guiding framework when balancing robust AI innovation with the urgent need to regulate harms at the state and local level?
Three sub‑questions to explore:
With the Senate rejecting the 10‑year moratorium, how can states lead responsibly, and what happens if federal regulation lags?
Do state-by-state AI laws risk fragmenting the market and slowing nationwide innovation or are they essential guardrails?
How do we ensure regulatory models keep pace with AI’s rapid evolution without creating loopholes that Big Tech can exploit?