Comment by Caleb Knapp

Congress should not make that mistake. [...] Lawmakers across the aisle are locked in a broader fight over whether states should retain the ability to legislate on AI across certain subject areas, or at all. Supporters of preemption often argue that a federal regulatory ceiling is necessary to avoid a patchwork of state AI laws. However, that concern bears little resemblance to reality. The states that have taken action are building governance structures that are increasingly functioning as de-facto national standard-setters. [...] California’s SB 53 established transparency requirements, safety disclosures, incident reporting obligations, and whistleblower protections for frontier AI developers.