State lawmakers are retooling as they prepare for another round of fights over artificial intelligence regulation in the new year.
Legislators say they feel even more emboldened to act as industry opposition intensifies and with President Donald Trump ratcheting up his efforts to preempt state-level AI guardrails.
“We really have a mandate now to use our power that we protected as states to regulate this technology and be idea beds for what could become comprehensive federal legislation,” said New York Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, a Democrat who chairs the Internet and Technology Committee.
The 2026 legislative sessions will mark the third year states have led on AI regulation. The effort has produced AI antidiscrimination and safety laws, rules for algorithmic pricing and rent-setting, restrictions on deepfakes, chatbot regulations and a host of sector-specific measures.
It has also exposed state policymakers to criticism that they are creating a patchwork of regulations and hurting America’s AI competitiveness.
This week, U.S. House Republican leaders put preemption back on the table, Trump assailed AI “overregulation” by states and pushed for a federal standard, and multiple news outlets reported Wednesday that the White House was preparing an executive order to enlist federal agencies to challenge state laws.
It is adding up to an increasingly contentious and high-stakes fight that will determine where state-level AI regulation goes from here.
Gonzalez said she plans to again push for passage of the New York AI Act, which aims to prevent algorithmic discrimination by requiring third-party audits of high-risk AI systems, among other protections. The Assembly passed it this year, but it died in the Senate.
Colorado lawmakers passed a similar law last year, though the legislature this year voted to delay its implementation.
Gonzalez also recently introduced a bill modeled on a 2025 Illinois law that would regulate the use of AI in mental health care. Similar measures have been introduced in Florida, Massachusetts and Ohio.
Read more: States crack down on AI therapy
Her other priority is chatbot regulations that would build on first-in-the-nation protections included this year in New York’s budget bill.
“We acknowledge that there is still a lot more work to do,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez is part of a vanguard of state legislators from both parties proposing AI regulations, as Congress stalls and as AI advances transform modern life.
That cohort also includes Connecticut Sen. James Maroney, who twice tried to get a comprehensive AI regulation bill passed. He’s changing tack for next year.
Maroney plans to narrow his bill to focus on AI’s use in employment decisions, with the goal of ensuring hiring algorithms don’t discriminate.
“It’s a pragmatic approach,” the Democrat told Pluribus News, noting that most Fortune 500 companies now use automated systems for hiring.
“It’s important to get protections in, and those are the ones that we can get now,” Maroney said.
The bill will also include provisions related to government use of AI and AI workforce development.
Justine Gluck, an AI policy analyst at the Future of Privacy Forum, said Maroney’s pivot for 2026 is consistent with a general shift away from “broader, more comprehensive-style AI bills and toward narrower, more sectoral-style bills.”
The change in strategy also reflects the fact that getting AI regulations passed is not easy, especially as the tech and venture capital industries step up their opposition.
A Future of Privacy Forum report last month found a 9.5% passage rate in 2025 for bills that directly or indirectly affected private sector development and deployment of AI.
Republican lawmakers are also laying the groundwork for potential legislation in 2026.
An AI task force in Kentucky this week delivered its recommendations to lawmakers. The list included beefing up the state’s data privacy law, updating how state agencies can use AI and increasing protections for minors.
Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez announced Tuesday that the House’s final interim committee week in December will be “Artificial Intelligence Week,” during which subcommittee chairs will convene conversations on the pros and cons of AI.
“We all recognize that AI may open new economic vistas,” the Republican wrote in a memo to members. “At the same time, we see stories about how AI can be abused, have adverse effects on education, or harm emotionally vulnerable users.”
Perez’s announcement did not call for concrete policy proposals.
Lawmakers are not the only ones prepping legislative strategies. Industry groups have signaled that they are prepared to mount a stronger resistance to AI rules, including on the campaign trail.
Read more: Lawmakers face mounting tech opposition over AI rules
Leading the Future, a Silicon Valley-backed super PAC, announced this week that New York Assemblymember Alex Bores, a Democrat running for Congress, is its first target for defeat.
Bores led the New York Responsible AI Safety and Education Act, or RAISE Act, to passage this year. Still awaiting Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature, the bill would ensure that the largest AI models aren’t weaponized to create mass casualty events. A similar measure was signed in California.
“Assemblyman Bores has advanced exactly the type of ideological and politically motivated legislation that would handcuff not only New York’s, but the entire country’s ability to lead on AI jobs and innovation,” Zac Moffatt and Josh Vlasto, who head Leading the Future, said in a statement.
They warned that the super PAC would “aggressively oppose” other policymakers and candidates who follow a similar path.
Bores defended the RAISE Act and said it enjoyed broad support, including from New York venture capital firms and startups.
“We won’t be intimidated by a few Trump mega-donors representing the far right of the tech ecosystem,” Bores said in a statement to Pluribus News.
Leading the Future, which has support from venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, has also established Build American AI, a policy organization that plans to spend millions of dollars promoting “a clear, pro-American AI agenda”
Andreessen Horowitz and allies previously established the American Innovators Network to advocate on behalf of AI startups. It has already run ad campaigns in California, Colorado and New York.
Chamber of Progress, a self-described center-left tech industry coalition, launched its State AI Leadership Project this week to focus on seven areas of AI legislation in the states, including algorithmic discrimination and chatbot bans for minors.
“State AI policymaking should be driven by pragmatism, not panic,” said K.J. Bagchi, vice president of U.S. policy and government relations at Chamber of Progress.