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The US Senate has voted down a proposed 10-year ban on states regulating artificial intelligence models, ending a controversial plan supported by Big Tech companies.
Senators voted by a margin of 99 to one in favour of an amendment to remove the wording from Donald Trump’s flagship tax and spending legislation.
The vote in the early hours of Tuesday morning came as part of a wider marathon voting session in the Senate over the US president’s “big, beautiful bill”.
Proponents, including Big Tech companies, argued that the provision to restrict AI regulation was necessary to prevent a raft of inconsistent regional rules that could stifle innovation and lead the US to lose ground to China.
But it had caused divisions within the Republican party.
Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick had said on Monday that he supported a five-year curb on state regulation of AI as a compromise, saying in a message on social media site X that the US “must prioritise investment and innovation” if it was “serious about winning the AI race”.
The proposed moratorium had, however, been criticised by some Republican politicians, who raised concerns about banning states from overseeing a powerful technology with the potential to cause social and economic upheaval.
AI safety campaigners also warned that relying on self-regulation could have disastrous societal consequences as Silicon Valley competes to release ever more powerful models.
The provision had been included in the tax and spending bill as part of the US House of Representatives’ version of the proposed legislation.
