A 10-year federal moratorium on state-level artificial intelligence regulation "makes sense" and is a "smart" move to help the U.S. maintain a strategic edge over adversaries like China and Russia, West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey told Newsmax, Wednesday.
"So I think from West Virginia's standpoint — and I think from a lot of the energy-producing states — what we see AI as is the next great frontier on American energy production," McCuskey said during an appearance on "The Chris Salcedo Show." "The amount of coal and gas that we're going to need to burn to make the electricity that's going to make America the leader in AI is going to change our economies forever."
The proposal to block states from regulating artificial intelligence for 10 years, included in President Donald Trump's tax cut bill, aims to preempt AI laws and regulations passed recently in dozens of states, but has drawn opposition from a bipartisan group of attorneys general that have regulated high-risk uses of the technology.
Last month, 40 attorneys general signed a letter urging House and Senate leaders to strip the AI moratorium from the federal budget reconciliation package and warning that the measure would override state sovereignty and halt critical local protections against emerging risks from AI.
However, McCuskey emphasized the importance of a unified national approach.
"When you look at it, putting a moratorium on when [federal regulation] ends I think is pretty smart because there are so many issues that we have to make sure that we are unified on to maximize this opportunity," he said. "Allowing there to be a cacophony of 50 states having their own sort of regulations is going to make it very difficult, I think, in the short term, for us to maximize this."
McCuskey acknowledged concerns about local oversight but said the Senate should seek a balanced approach that allows the United States to lead globally in AI innovation and energy demands while preserving room for state values in the long term.
"What I'm really looking for is for the Senate to look at this smartly and to say there is a balance that we have to find here, which is how do we maximize the opportunity for AI, which both means energy production, but it also means national security," he said.
"We cannot allow China and Russia to beat us to the punch on AI. It's absolutely the next frontier."
Still, McCuskey said he believes there should be a point when states can step in.
"My hope is ... that we find a compromise here that enables all of our huge AI companies to have a level playing field but also gives our states the ability to say, You know, we don't think AI should be used for this," he said.
"We believe that the value set of the people of West Virginia should be sort of tuned against these parts of the AI revolution."
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.