Governors form AI coalition, citing federal inaction
by Mary McCue Bell · The Washington TimesMaryland Gov. Wes Moore touted a bipartisan, governor-led coalition on artificial intelligence, saying at Thursday’s Maryland Innovation Summit that the group is filling a policy void left by federal inaction.
While centering Maryland as a national model for implementing AI guardrails, the Democratic governor said he will co-chair the initiative with Republican Gov. Mike Braun of Indiana.
Mr. Moore is the chairman and Mr. Braun the vice chairman of the National Governors Association.
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Mr. Moore criticized White House approaches to AI, calling President Trump’s meeting with AI executives at the White House this week a “billionaire boys club.”
The White House Accord on Super Intelligence, signed Tuesday, is a voluntary, nonbinding safety pact among the Trump administration and major tech and AI executives.
“Who in the room was advocating for more transparency or more regulatory guardrails?” Mr. Moore, referencing the White House meeting, told The Associated Press after speaking at the conference in Baltimore. “What the president did in no way, shape or form made me feel like what the governors are now doing was now unnecessary.”
Mr. Trump described the accord as “morally binding.” It carries no legal penalties or enforcement mechanisms.
“The federal government has a unique leadership role that they have to play and that includes both the White House and Congress,” Mr. Moore said. “In the absence of that, the governors cannot just sit on our hands.”
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The governors’ push could face federal resistance. The president signed an executive order in December directing the Justice Department to set up a task force to challenge state AI laws that conflict with national policy.
The Justice Department created the task force in January.
Governors have stepped in with executive orders and safety laws due to what they call slow or lackluster federal regulations on AI.
States such as Maryland, California and Illinois have enacted executive or legislative standards, while governors in Pennsylvania, Utah and Texas have targeted data center expansion.
Mr. Moore also faulted Congress for leaving Washington until after next month’s midterm elections without addressing the technology.
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Congress has moved on pieces of the AI issue but has not enacted a framework.
The House passed a bipartisan bill Sept. 16 aimed at keeping data center energy costs off consumers, sending it to the Senate.
A separate bipartisan House bill, the FRONTIER Act, would require audits and transparency reports from large AI developers, but it remains in committee. The FRONTIER Act is short for the Frontier Risk Oversight, National Transparency, Independent Evaluation and Reporting Act.
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