Artificial intelligence will not destroy us. But fear-driven regulation might.

Reports in early December indicate that President Donald J. Trump is preparing to sign an executive order that would block state-level laws regulating artificial intelligence and replace them with a single federal standard. According to early descriptions, the order would bar states from enforcing their own AI rules on safety, transparency, data, or algorithmic accountability.

The administration’s stated goal is to prevent a “chaotic patchwork of state AI laws” that, it argues, would burden interstate commerce and undermine the nation’s competitiveness. The justification is familiar: when the states cannot agree, when new technologies cross borders too easily, only a uniform national standard can provide stability.

At one level, the reasoning is plausible. Yes, California, Colorado, Texas, Florida, Vermont, New York, and a dozen others have enacted or proposed conflicting approaches to regulating AI. Yes, this makes compliance difficult. But that does not justify a federal takeover of the entire domain of artificial intelligence, especially when the order reportedly envisions not merely preemption of state law, but the creation of a national regulatory framework enforced by federal agencies. The question that should precede any such action is the oldest one in the American political tradition: what powers does the government require in order to protect liberty — and what powers will compromise it?

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~Politics_And_Law ~econ