Every week we put our faith into action. This week we are focusing on the concerns of most people for the unbridled growth of Artificial Intelligence. There is currently legislation in Congress backed by the President that would, instead of addressing these concerns, actually preempt state regulation of AI as well as undermine online privacy. We are urging our members of Congress to oppose this legislation and instead work to pass legislation addressing the many issues revolving around AI.

Action Letter:

I write to express concerns regarding recent federal legislative efforts to preempt state laws regulating artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence is moving faster than any legislative body can anticipate. It is already shaping decisions about people’s employment, credit, housing, and interactions with law enforcement. It is being used to generate fraudulent images and audio of real people without their consent, deployed in workplaces to monitor and manage workers in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago, and posing risks to the safety and wellbeing of our children and youth. In this environment, the ability of states to respond to harms as they emerge and to protect their residents is a necessity.

The White House has been seeking to challenge state AI laws in federal court and issued a legislative framework calling on Congress to preempt state AI laws, while making no mention of algorithmic bias, civil rights, or any mechanism to hold AI companies accountable. Multiple bills have now been proposed to explicitly block states from regulating AI.

The Episcopal Church has called for policies at the local, state, and national levels of government to protect people from unreasonable surveillance, data collection, and harmful content—including AI-generated content used to defraud, defame, or exploit—and to restrict uses of AI that infringe on civil rights or perpetuate discrimination. It is critical that Congress ensure that people have meaningful pathways to prevent and address the harms that AI may cause. As such, I ask you to oppose any federal effort to limit states’ authority to regulate artificial intelligence.

Options to Take Action:

1. Sign the action letters at the Action Table on Sunday.
2. Download an action letter that you can sign and mail.     Within CA      Outside CA

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For personal actions or information, here are some helpful resources:

Contact the White House at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ or leave a phone comment at 1-202-456-1111.

If you ever need to look up your member of the U.S. House of Representatives or your U.S. Senators check here: www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.

To find contact information for your California State Senator or California State Assemblymember check here: www.senate.ca.gov and www.assembly.ca.gov.