Today, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) aligned with over 140 organizations to express opposition to the updated AI moratorium in a letter addressed to Senate leadership. The groups articulated their concerns about the connection between the moratorium and Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding. They argue that this linkage could undermine vital protections for civil rights and consumer safety, while potentially causing harm to ordinary Americans.
The letter highlights that "federal preemption would invalidate key state laws that protect against 'high impact' AI," which conflicts with an executive memo from the Trump administration designed to safeguard consumers from AI-related harms in areas such as employment, lending, and education. It warns that critical protections for civil rights and children's privacy could be invalidated, alongside transparency measures in consumer-facing chatbots intended to prevent fraud.
The coalition of organizations emphasizes that without these safeguards, abuses of AI or automated decision systems could lead to a wide range of issues. These include financial impacts on working families through decisions affecting rental prices, serious violations of civil rights for ordinary Americans, and large-scale threats like cyber attacks on critical infrastructure or biological weapons production.
For more details on their stance, readers are encouraged to review the full letter submitted by CDT and its partners.