State lawmakers are currently deciding the regulation that will determine the future for AI. Here's a spreadsheet to find the AI bills your state’s lawmakers are discussing.

Americans, right now is the most critical time to voice your concerns to your state lawmakers.

Right now many states are in their legislative session. Tech companies know their best bet to power is to go after our state policies, rather than federal.

**If we don’t regulate these AI tech bros now, it will be too late. And when that happens, their power and influence over our lives — and society at large — is only going to grow.**

Consider this: AI companies have found little incentive toward improving accuracy rates. Studies find accuracy has little affect on whether people choose to adopt AI while perception has a great effect. And admitting it doesn't know something doesn't drive adoption either. Being helpful does. Hence once of the reasons these chatbots are designed to give you an answer no matter what.

Now, imagine what what happens when AI companies aren't on the hook for an AI having a whoopsies and committing a criminal act. You really think Sam Altman is going to take responsibility? You really think he is going to invest resources into protective measures if there isn't a financial or legal incentive for him to do so?

## Spreadsheet To Find the AI Bills Your State’s Lawmakers Are Discussing

[Here is a Google spreadsheet of the AI-related bills state lawmakers are debating right now](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OmNk5ndN9Z0wJVnItP24Sb-i71xrqtaa7Z2EkSINjAk/edit?usp=sharing). You need to contact your state lawmakers **now.** State bill sessions run for a limited time in most states. So seriously, contact them now. You won't be able to do it later.

The spreadsheet is not perfect. I did this in my spare time. I pulled up every bill that mentioned "artificial intelligence" and then quickly went through and deleted the ones that were irrelevant, but I'm sure there's some I missed.

The spreadsheet is as of April 28, so bills may have progressed since then. To find out the most up-to-date status, click on the link in column A. If you have any trouble or questions, leave a comment. If you use this, leave a comment!

If you aren't sure what to do or your state makes things super confusing, just let me know the bill number and I'll help. I'm a journalist (albeit recently laid off) and heavily covered state legislation last year when every state concurrently held their sessions, so I'm very familiar with navigating all the weirdness that's unique to each state. Some states make it easy (shout out to New Hampshire) and some states make it feel impossible (fuck you, Illinois).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OmNk5ndN9Z0wJVnItP24Sb-i71xrqtaa7Z2EkSINjAk/edit?usp=sharing

## Why State Legislation Is Critical

[**How Silicon Valley Uses Big Tobacco, Pharma, and Oil Tactics to Block Regulation**](https://www.techpolicy.press/how-silicon-valley-uses-big-tobacco-pharma-and-oil-tactics-to-block-regulation/)

>Instead, the richest technology companies in the world have borrowed from the past. Facebook’s then Director of Monetization, Tim Kendall, admitted as much in his testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in a 2020 hearing: “[We took a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook](https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/023.pdf).” **Not only has Big Tech poured a combined** [**fifty million dollars into lobbying Congress**](https://issueone.org/articles/big-tech-lobbying-2025-q3/) **in the third quarter of 2025**[**,**](https://issueone.org/articles/big-tech-lobbying-2025-q3/) **but their most effective tactics — from shaping public perception, deflecting blame, and capturing regulators — trace their lineage directly to the strategies perfected by Big Tobacco, Big Oil, and Big Pharma.**

[States are the Stewards of the People’s Trust in AI](https://www.techpolicy.press/states-are-the-stewards-of-the-peoples-trust-in-ai/)

> Today, frontier AI companies are promising that their models will have seismic impact across these and many other domains. They are facing considerable pressure to turn cutting-edge research and massive capital investment into products and services that generate sales and revenue for the company and returns for investors. This creates tensions between pursuing profits and investing in safety. These tensions will play out in choices made across the AI stack but will be especially felt by people and communities closest to the application layer.

>

>Because AI adoption will occur in highly regulated industries and sectors, states have clear authority to steer how the technology is developed and deployed—and even more soft power to influence what the enterprise customers of frontier AI companies demand of their models. Seeking AI revenue in industrial automation? Twenty-two states are the primary regulators of occupational health and safety. Building AI revenue in health care? States administer Medicaid that finances approximately 1 in 5 dollars of national health spending. In search of AI market share in K-12 and secondary schooling? State departments of education, along with local school boards and officials, are gatekeepers to potential customers.

>

>Federal policy may affect the scope of these state powers, but it will not change the fundamentals. From AI development and deployment to data center infrastructure and energy generation and distribution, US states will always be necessary partners in AI governance. Indeed, states have the opportunity to extend what they do best across regulation, procurement, market-based incentives, and public participation to shape and support AI’s responsible evolution.

[**America’s AI Governance Crisis Is a Democracy Crisis**](https://www.techpolicy.press/americas-ai-governance-crisis-is-a-democracy-crisis/)

>The White House federal policy follows a preemption playbook from a [similar attempt](https://www.mlstrategies.com/insights-center/viewpoints/54031/2026-02-04-\_026-ai-policy-and-semiconductor-outlook-how-federal) in Congress last year to bar states from regulating AI. But it puts little meat on the bones while attempting to preempt all state laws on AI, for now and forever. Given the widespread use of algorithms in virtually every industry, it would also blow an AI-sized hole in state laws that protect basic consumer rights on everything from insurance to housing and financial services.

>

>Although it includes limited language on deep fakes and scams, the framework lacks a privacy standard or limits on surveillance—in fact, agencies would be required to make data available for AI. It tells Congress not to create a new regulator, and to rely instead on sectoral rules and “industry-led standards.” On copyright, it declares training AI on the work of others is legal, and Congress should stay away. It includes unconstitutionally vague bromides warning against “partisan or ideological agendas.” On child safety, it calls for parental controls while warning against “open-ended liability” for companies.

>

>**In short, this is preemption as a weapon. **Just as the tobacco industry and gun lobby did, the play is usually to argue that a patchwork of state laws creates uncertainty, while ensuring a substitute federal law does little or nothing.** Notably, there’s not even much of an attempt to bother with any meaningful legal standards here. More absence than presence, it’s just a point-blank power grab: mostly empty space so the tech industry can keep doing whatever it wants.**

>

>What we are witnessing, then, is not merely an attempt to lock in our failure to govern an extremely powerful new technology, although it certainly is that. In full view of the frightening prospect of totally unregulated AI, we must grapple with the underlying condition that our democratic capacity has been eviscerated.

[**America's First War in Age of LLMs Exposes Myth of AI Alignment**](https://www.techpolicy.press/americas-first-war-in-age-of-llms-exposes-myth-of-ai-alignment/)

[**Silicon Valley's Moral Posturing Is an AI Power Play**](https://www.techpolicy.press/silicon-valleys-moral-posturing-is-an-ai-power-play/)

[Data Center Tech Lobbyists Fearmonger in Attempt to Retroactively Roll Back Right to Repair Law](https://www.404media.co/data-center-tech-lobbyists-fearmonger-in-attempt-to-retroactively-roll-back-right-to-repair-law/)

[How A.I. Money Is Flooding Into the Midterm Elections](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/us/politics/ai-money-midterms-openai-anthropic.html?unlocked\_article\_code=1.N1A.pQV8.QVoViLPGoxV8)

[AI companies know they have an image problem. Will funding policy papers and thinktanks dig them out?](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitAIBrosSay/comments/1slxpoq/ai\_companies\_know\_they\_have\_an\_image\_problem\_will/)

[Here's a wiki with lots of articles specific to AI's threat to information and democracy](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitAIBrosSay/wiki/index/). It also has some articles about their unethical business practices. There's also a page with podcast recommendations.****