Trump wants to stop states from regulating AI. This Utah Republican isn’t listening - AP News
So the Trump administration's 'multi-front campaign' to preempt state AI regulation, which we noted last week was facing resistance, has now met its first named Republican defector in the form of Utah's own Fiefia. According to AP News, this state senator is bluntly ignoring the White House's push for zero regulations, declaring that while the administration 'wants to stop states from regulating AI,' he's ploughing ahead with state-level bills anyway. It's a delightful spectacle: a GOP lawmaker essentially telling the party's standard-bearer that his national 'unleash everything' strategy is about as useful as a chocolate teapot when it comes to local governance.
Fiefia's move isn't just symbolic posturing; he's reportedly drafting legislation that would impose specific transparency and accountability requirements on AI systems used in critical state functions like healthcare and law enforcement. This directly contradicts the administration's preferred model of a single, minimalist federal standard that would override any pesky local rules. The irony is thick enough to cut with a knife: a Republican, in a state not known for its regulatory enthusiasm, is essentially arguing that the federal government shouldn't be trusted to handle this alone because, well, it might not handle it at all. So much for that 'strategically streamlined' national framework.
What we're witnessing is the early stages of a regulatory brawl where the usual partisan lines are blurring into a messy, pragmatic scramble. The administration's threat of using the Department of Justice to sue states that dare to regulate—a tactic flagged in prior coverage—now looks less like a deterrent and more like an invitation for rebellion. Fiefia's stance suggests that even within the GOP, there's a growing recognition that waiting for Washington to get its act together on AI safety is a fool's errand. The result? A patchwork of state laws that will drive tech companies mad, but at least someone will be trying to write some rules before the robots do.