Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, the rapid growth of the AI market and significant advancement in the capabilities of these technologies has exposed both their benefits and risks. How to address these risks remains a challenge, and the need for effective regulation has become apparent. Members of Congress agree.
The Brennan Center’s Artificial Intelligence Legislation Tracker aims to increase public awareness of the myriad proposed regulatory approaches to AI legislation by serving as a repository of such AI-related bills introduced by Congress. Given both the known and unknown risks of AI, it is critical that the public have easy access to information on how lawmakers are attempting to address concerns.
The tracker includes bills from the 118th and 119th Congress which, at their core, do at least one of the following: 1
- Impose restrictions on or clarify the use of AI systems
- Require evaluations of AI systems and/or their uses
- Impose transparency, notice, and labeling requirements
- Establish or designate a regulatory authority or individual to oversee AI systems
- Protect consumers through liability measures
- Direct the government to study AI
- Impose restrictions on or requirements for the data underlying AI systems
- Modify procurement policies that would affect government use of AI
- Direct the government to use or augment its use of AI
The bills included address some of the most serious risks posed by AI systems, such as perpetuating discrimination and bias, opaque and untested operating systems, providing inaccurate information, undermining privacy, and enabling disinformation and manipulation of images, video, and audio to influence elections.
Just as artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving, so is the legislative landscape. During the 118th Congress, lawmakers introduced over 150 bills concerning AI. None of these bills were passed into law. The 119th Congress promises new and reintroduced bills.1
The tracker adds to the Brennan Center’s research on the risks AI poses to elections and the discriminatory impact of AI used in immigration, law enforcement social media monitoring, and facial recognition.
AI Legislation Introduced in the 119th Congress is compiled below:
AI Legislation Introduced in the 118th Congress is compiled below:
Endnotes
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1
Our methodology involves reviewing any bill that uses the language “artificial intelligence” to determine whether it falls within the scope of this tracker.
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1
For this tracker, we have specified the “status” of the bill, meaning at what stage, generally, it is in the legislative process. These stages are:
- Pending: these bills have been introduced and either remain in their respective committees or have potentially been passed out of one chamber and await a vote in the other chamber. The vast majority of bills remain at this stage.
- Passed Congress, Sent to President: these bills have been passed by majorities of both the House and Senate and have been sent to the president for signature into law.
- Passed into Law: these bills have been signed by the president and enacted into law.
- Failed: these bills have failed to become law and are no longer pending. A bill may fail for a number of reasons, including failing to garner the necessary number of votes in the House or Senate, or being vetoed by the president without two-thirds majority of both chambers to override the veto.
To glean more information on the specifics of the bill’s status, we encourage you to explore the bill’s status on Congress.gov, which is linked to its legislation number in our table.
