Exclusive: Civil rights groups urge Congress to oppose AI moratorium
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
More than 50 civil rights organizations are calling on senators to remove the 10-year freeze of state-level AI regulation from the reconciliation bill, per a letter shared exclusively with Axios.
Why it matters: The moratorium language has sparked broad backlash from advocacy groups and blue and red states.
- The letter is led by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and contends a freeze would likely result in "severely damaging unintended consequences."
- Color Of Change, the NAACP and Public Citizen are among the signatories.
What's inside: "A 10-year moratorium will extinguish states' ongoing debates and efforts to address AI challenges, including the problem of algorithmic discrimination, leaving people vulnerable and exposed to faulty technology," the letter states.
- The groups point to Colorado, Washington state, and Virginia laws that require facial recognition technology to be subject to independent testing and or accuracy standards.
- Getting rid of those laws would mean untested technology could be used on the public and lead to false arrests or racial profiling, the letter notes.
- The groups also go after the Senate attempt to tie the AI moratorium to BEAD funds, saying it "presents a false choice that no member of Congress should accept."
The other side: Moratorium backers say the the measure would help prevent a patchwork of regulations and that there should be a federal standard.
- Congress is nowhere near passing comprehensive guardrails.
What we're watching: Opposition in the Senate and House is growing, and there are bipartisan efforts to strip the measure from the bill.
