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A Federal Moratorium on State AI Rules Is Inching Closer to Passing. Why It Matters

Congress is considering a policy that would stop states from having their own regulations around artificial intelligence.

States and local governments would be limited in how they can regulate artificial intelligence under a proposal currently before Congress. AI leaders say the move would ensure the US can lead in innovation, but critics say it could lead to fewer consumer protections for the fast-growing technology.

The proposal, as passed by the House of Representatives, says no state or political subdivision «may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems or automated decision systems» for 10 years. In May, the House added it to the full budget bill, which also includes the extension of the 2017 federal tax cuts and cuts to services like Medicaid and SNAP. The Senate has made some changes, namely that the moratorium would only be required for states that accept funding as part of the $42.5 billion Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment program. 

AI developers and some lawmakers have said federal action is necessary to keep states from creating a patchwork of different rules and regulations across the US that could slow the technology’s growth. The rapid growth in generative AI since OpenAI’s ChatGPT exploded on the scene in late 2022 has led companies to wedge the technology in as many spaces as possible. The economic implications are significant, as the US and China race to see which country’s tech will predominate, but generative AI poses privacy, transparency and other risks for consumers that lawmakers have sought to temper.

«[Congress has] not done any meaningful protective legislation for consumers in many, many years,» Ben Winters, director of AI and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America, told me. «If the federal government is failing to act and then they say no one else can act, that’s only benefiting the tech companies.»

Efforts to limit the ability of states to regulate artificial intelligence could mean fewer consumer protections around a technology that is increasingly seeping into every aspect of American life. «There have been a lot of discussions at the state level, and I would think that it’s important for us to approach this problem at multiple levels,» said Anjana Susarla, a professor at Michigan State University who studies AI. «We could approach it at the national level. We can approach it at the state level, too. I think we need both.»

Several states have already started regulating AI

The proposed language would bar states from enforcing any regulation, including those already on the books. The exceptions are rules and laws that make things easier for AI development and those that apply the same standards to non-AI models and systems that do similar things. These kinds of regulations are already starting to pop up. The biggest focus is not in the US, but in Europe, where the European Union has already implemented standards for AI. But states are starting to get in on the action.

Colorado passed a set of consumer protections last year, set to go into effect in 2026. California adopted more than a dozen AI-related laws last year. Other states have laws and regulations that often deal with specific issues such as deepfakes or require AI developers to publish information about their training data. At the local level, some regulations also address potential employment discrimination if AI systems are used in hiring.

«States are all over the map when it comes to what they want to regulate in AI,» said Arsen Kourinian, a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown. So far in 2025, state lawmakers have introduced at least 550 proposals around AI, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In the House committee hearing last month, Rep. Jay Obernolte, a Republican from California, signaled a desire to get ahead of more state-level regulation. «We have a limited amount of legislative runway to be able to get that problem solved before the states get too far ahead,» he said.

While some states have laws on the books, not all of them have gone into effect or seen any enforcement. That limits the potential short-term impact of a moratorium, said Cobun Zweifel-Keegan, managing director in Washington for the International Association of Privacy Professionals. «There isn’t really any enforcement yet.» 

A moratorium would likely deter state legislators and policymakers from developing and proposing new regulations, Zweifel-Keegan said. «The federal government would become the primary and potentially sole regulator around AI systems,» he said.

What a moratorium on state AI regulation means

AI developers have asked for any guardrails placed on their work to be consistent and streamlined. 

«We need, as an industry and as a country, one clear federal standard, whatever it may be,» Alexandr Wang, founder and CEO of the data company Scale AI, told lawmakers during an April hearing. «But we need one, we need clarity as to one federal standard and have preemption to prevent this outcome where you have 50 different standards.»

During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in May, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, that an EU-style regulatory system «would be disastrous» for the industry. Altman suggested instead that the industry develop its own standards.

Asked by Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, if industry self-regulation is enough at the moment, Altman said he thought some guardrails would be good, but, «It’s easy for it to go too far. As I have learned more about how the world works, I am more afraid that it could go too far and have really bad consequences.» (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, parent company of CNET, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Not all AI companies are backing a moratorium, however. In a New York Times op-ed, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called it «far too blunt an instrument,» saying the federal government should create transparency standards for AI companies instead. «Having this national transparency standard would help not only the public but also Congress understand how the technology is developing, so that lawmakers can decide whether further government action is needed.»

Concerns from companies, both the developers that create AI systems and the «deployers» who use them in interactions with consumers, often stem from fears that states will mandate significant work such as impact assessments or transparency notices before a product is released, Kourinian said. Consumer advocates have said more regulations are needed, and hampering the ability of states could hurt the privacy and safety of users.

A moratorium on specific state rules and laws could result in more consumer protection issues being dealt with in court or by state attorneys general, Kourinian said. Existing laws around unfair and deceptive practices that are not specific to AI would still apply. «Time will tell how judges will interpret those issues,» he said.

Susarla said the pervasiveness of AI across industries means states might be able to regulate issues such as privacy and transparency more broadly, without focusing on the technology. But a moratorium on AI regulation could lead to such policies being tied up in lawsuits. «It has to be some kind of balance between ‘we don’t want to stop innovation,’ but on the other hand, we also need to recognize that there can be real consequences,» she said.

Much policy around the governance of AI systems does happen because of those so-called technology-agnostic rules and laws, Zweifel-Keegan said. «It’s worth also remembering that there are a lot of existing laws and there is a potential to make new laws that don’t trigger the moratorium but do apply to AI systems as long as they apply to other systems,» he said.

Will an AI moratorium pass?

With the bill now in the hands of the US Senate — and with more people becoming aware of the proposal — debate over the moratorium has picked up. The proposal did clear a significant procedural hurdle, with the Senate parliamentarian ruling that it does pass the so-called Byrd rule, which states that proposals included in a budget reconciliation package have to actually deal with the federal budget. The move to tie the moratorium to states accepting BEAD funding likely helped, Winters told me. 

Whether it passes in its current form is now less a procedural question than a political one, Winters said. Senators of both parties, including Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Marsha Blackburn, have voiced their concerns about tying the hands of states. 

«I do think there’s a strong open question about whether it would be passed as currently written, even though it wasn’t procedurally taken away,» Winters said.

Whatever bill the Senate approves will then also have to be accepted by the House, where it passed by the narrowest of margins. Even some House members who voted for the bill have said they don’t like the moratorium, namely Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a key ally of President Donald Trump. The Georgia Republican posted on X this week that she is «adamantly OPPOSED» to the moratorium and that she would not vote for the bill with the moratorium included. 

At the state level, a letter signed by 40 state attorneys general — of both parties — called for Congress to reject the moratorium and instead create that broader regulatory system. «This bill does not propose any regulatory scheme to replace or supplement the laws enacted or currently under consideration by the states, leaving Americans entirely unprotected from the potential harms of AI,» they wrote.

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A New Threads Feature Saves You From Seeing and Posting Spoilers: Here’s How It Works

Didn’t want to see that plot twist? Marvel and Netflix were the first to try out Threads’ new spoiler-blocking feature.

Social media can accidentally spoil a streaming movie or show for those who haven’t yet watched it. Threads, the popular social media platform from Meta, now has a new feature that could save you from spoiling your next watch.

The new feature allows users to mark media and text posts as spoilers. If it’s a photo, the spoiler will then appear blurred in feeds, and text will be grayed out. Clicking on both types makes the spoiler visible. Netflix and Marvel are the first major studios to use the feature on their posts. Meta says the feature is rolling out globally, but we saw it available on Friday.

Speaking of spoilers, you may want to stop reading now if you’re not logged in to Threads, the embedded plot-spoiling posts in this story may not be blurred.

Netflix posted a photo from one of the last scenes of Squid Game’s third and final season, with the caption «do not tap until you’ve finished Squid Game 3.»

Marvel teased the villain in the new Ironheart series in a post. You won’t meet the villain until the last episode. You can stream Ironheart on Disney Plus.

We Were Liars on Prime also added a post that uses the new Threads spoiler text feature. 

We’ve seen several other updates from Threads this year, including the ability to copy images, thus replacing the need to screenshot. Threads also only recently started testing direct messaging, despite the app being out for around two years.

How to use the spoiler feature on Threads

Anyone can use the spoiler feature on their posts. All you have to do is highlight what you want to hide, tap and select «mark spoiler.» That will blur the text or image you selected for others.

This feature doesn’t mean you won’t see posts about your favorite pop culture and entertainment topics. It lets you choose when you’re ready to know more. All it takes is a tap. 

However, it’s worth pointing out that it’s up to those who make the post to decide if they mark something as a spoiler. So spoilers could abound until most people adopt the feature. Even still, it’s good to see a feature that allows you to stay in the loop without spoiling major plot points along the way.

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Technologies

Someone Help Me — I Also Need These Sonic the Hedgehog Magic: The Gathering Cards

Sega’s superspeedster is getting some genuinely awesome cards in a limited drop next month.

Magic: The Gathering hit a goldmine earlier this month when it released its Final Fantasy set based on one of the most popular video game franchises of all time. Final Fantasy was reportedly the best-selling Magic set before it even released, thanks to extensive preorders. Now Wizards of the Coast is hoping to repeat that success with Secret Lair drops themed around video game icon Sonic the Hedgehog, launching Monday, July 14.

Depending on which century you were born in, you’ll either recognize Sonic as the star of 1991’s Sega Genesis video game Sonic the Hedgehog, or as the star of Paramount Pictures’ Sonic the Hedgehog movies. (Or maybe you know him from Smash Bros. or Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, or any of the countless other places he shows up.) Now he’s joining the storied Magic: The Gathering card game in a year where Magic is aggressively investing in crossovers with other properties.

Those crossovers started years ago with The Walking Dead, which became an official Magic series called Universes Beyond when it released a Secret Lair drop for Stranger Things. We’ve gotten Magic cards for everything from Street Fighter to Lord of the Rings, The Evil Dead, Jurassic Park and even SpongeBob. Lord of the Rings was the first full Universes Beyond set, but it set the table for Final Fantasy last month, and we’re getting full sets for both Spider-Man and Avatar: The Last Airbender later this year.

The new Sonic Magic: The Gathering cards are different from the game’s Final Fantasy set because these are Secret Lair products — limited-run drops of a handful of cards, rather than a full set of hundreds of Standard-legal cards. Like many Secret Lair crossover products, they seem aimed at the casual multiplayer Commander format that lets you build decks around your favorite characters and play with a group of friends. 

Sonic being a legendary creature with white mana, blue mana and red mana in his color identity, means that a Sonic Commander deck allows you to include his allies Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose in the deck. Shadow costs red and black mana, which means he doesn’t fit in a Sonic Commander deck, but he would fit in a Dr. Eggman deck.

And, gang, these cards are kinda wild. Whenever Sonic attacks, he puts power-increasing counters on other creatures with flash or haste, which not-so-coincidentally includes all of the aforementioned allies that fit in his deck. And Sonic having the haste ability himself means he can attack the same turn you cast him, virtually guaranteeing one activation. Tails can draw cards when flying vehicles enter — a nice nod to his plane, which first showed up in the late stages of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Knuckles has a lot going on, including the ability to create treasure tokens that can help you cast spells — or just outright win the game if you have enough while he’s on the battlefield. 

There’s also some mechanical synergy between these cards and the new Final Fantasy cards. Amy Rose automatically attaches equipment when she attacks and then can buff the power of other creatures, making her a great fit for the Limit Break Commander deck led by Cloud (or Tifa), which cares about equipment and power stats! 

Similarly, Dr. Eggman gets to draw cards at the beginning of your end step — if you also control Y’Shtola Rhul, you get an extra end step, allowing you to draw two cards instead of one for the low, low cost of ending your turn. 

All of that adds up to mechanically fun Magic cards that feature a lifelong favorite character for me. And it’ll add up financially if I can get my hands on either the foil Sonic: Friends & Foes collection ($40) or the non-foil collection ($30), the cards in which are less likely to warp from the foil treatment.

There are two other Sonic Secret Lair drops announced, including one that focuses on reprinted artifacts like vehicles and equipment and another that rounds up existing cards that synergize with the new cards. Both will be available in $40 foil or $30 non-foil versions. All three Secret Lair sets go on sale Monday, July 14, at noon ET/9 a.m. ET. 

When they do, and I cannot stress this enough, you gotta go fast to get ’em. 

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Steam Summer Sale: Snag 4 Major Borderlands Games for Under $25 Before Borderlands 4

This is an amazingly cheap way to get caught up before the new game launches in September.

If you want to catch up on the Borderlands series before Borderlands 4 comes out on Sept. 12, you won’t find a better opportunity than this. Every mainline Borderlands game is steeply discounted for Steam’s Summer sale, with many of them in the single digits. 

You can currently get Borderlands Game of the Year Enhanced, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 3 for a grand total of $22. The first game represents about half that cost, so if you’ve already played that one or want to skip it, you can get the other three for just $12. Various downloadable content is also on sale, if you want to add to the base games.

This is an absolute steal. Borderlands 2 is one of my all-time favorite first-person-shooter games, and despite being more than a decade old, it’s worth about $20 just on its own. For me, it’s the pinnacle (so far) of the series’ hero designs and enemy encounters — for my money, Zer0, Gunzerker and Gaige are three of the most fun vault hunters the series has ever made. And the True Vault Hunter Mode and Ultimate Vault Hunter Modes (the new game plus modes) really add a lot of replay value by ratcheting up the strategy through the increased importance of matching your elemental weapons to the right enemy health type — think type matchups in Pokemon, except with guns.

What I particularly love about the Borderlands series is the customization it offers. The games give you at least four vault hunter classes to choose from, and those classes offer additional options via skill trees that let you adjust the way your vault hunter plays. For instance, Zer0 has options for sniping, stealth or melee. Add in different gun manufacturers whose weapons all have a different feel, plus different categories of guns — pistols, submachine guns, sniper rifles, etc. — and elemental weapon types on top of that, and you end up with a veritable treasure trove of ways to tune your vault hunter’s gameplay. 

Also, you can throw grenades that explode money. I almost crashed Borderlands 3 because I was exploding so much money.

The original Borderlands established the formula and some of the regular elements, like soldier and siren classes as well as vending machines for gear and health. It also established some of the recurring characters, like de facto mascot Moxxi. Borderlands 2 refined that formula and introduced an amazing villain who added more narrative depth. The Pre-Sequel shook things up by taking us to space and giving us laser weapons. Borderlands 3 took a step back in terms of narrative and characters, but it added some nice mechanical polish, like being able to mantle up ledges or slide into barrels to send them flying into enemies. 

All four of those games will take you about 100 hours total to beat if you stick to the main quests, or closer to 200 hours if you’re the type to get sidetracked occasionally. Pro tip: Talk, finagle or blackmail some friends into playing with you. The games are significantly more fun with other players. 

For the complete Borderlands experience, you can also tack on the Dungeons & Dragons-inspired spinoff game Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands for $12 and Tales from the Borderlands, an acclaimed narrative choices game, for $15. 

With Borderlands 4 coming out in just a few months, you’re not going to get a better chance to start or add to your collection. Catch a riiide, vault hunters. 

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