States move on AI as PCAST relaunches
With no federal AI bill yet, states are pushing their own rules on disclosure and campaign deepfakes while the White House's PCAST 'AI Dream Team' relaunched to advise on infrastructure and safety. The split between state-level lawmaking and a new federal advisory push is crystallizing national AI governance this week. ( )
State legislatures have enacted a patchwork of rules this cycle, with trackers showing roughly 28 states now have laws addressing deepfakes or AI use in political ads. (ballotpedia.org) Reuters documented concrete instances already in circulation this year, including a synthetic video purporting to show Texas state Rep. James Talarico saying lines he never recorded. (yahoo.com) Most state statutes emphasize disclosure obligations and civil remedies rather than outright bans, and several include pre‑election blackout windows or tailored penalties for deceptive political ads. (citizen.org) The White House on March 25 announced an initial 13 appointments to a relaunched President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), naming industry figures such as Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, Larry Ellison, Sergey Brin and Lisa Su. (whitehouse.gov) The administration said PCAST will be co‑chaired by David Sacks and Michael Kratsios, that the council may expand to as many as 24 members, and that additional appointments and meeting details will be announced soon. (aip.org) Reporting flagged immediate scrutiny over the council’s industry‑heavy composition given members’ ties to companies that control major AI infrastructure such as Nvidia and Meta. (politico.com) That combination — dozens of state disclosure laws on the books and a federally reconstituted PCAST led by tech executives — frames this week as a turning point in U.S. AI governance, with the White House pitching a national framework while states continue to fill regulatory gaps. (vpm.org)
