Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger is calling on Congress to create a national regulatory framework for artificial intelligence, warning that federal inaction leaves data privacy, employment and large-scale resource consumption at risk.
In a letter this week to House Speaker Mike Johnson and congressional leadership, Spanberger said there is too much at stake to leave AI regulation to private companies. She pointed to the AI Task Force she established through Executive Order 22, along with her Data Center Accountability Framework, as steps Virginia is taking at the state level.
"Here in Virginia, I pushed out my Data Center Accountability Framework, which has AI-focused components, recognizing the real challenges that exist to our communities and recognizing the need for the state to take action," Spanberger said. "Our AI Task Force is focused on addressing the significant risks to our jobs, our privacy, and our cybersecurity posed by the real, rapid development of AI."
Spanberger said some elements of AI oversight can only be handled nationally. "While we're working in Virginia to address some of these concerns at the state level, there are simply elements that have to happen on a national level," she said. "And that's why, certainly as the leader of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I am calling on members of Congress — and particularly congressional leadership — to actually really do their job because this is among the singular roles that only they can take on to create a real nationwide framework."
Speaking to WTOP, Spanberger said Congress should "create rules of the road" for a technology being developed without framework or guidance. She compared AI to defense, space and airline industries, which have long been regulated, and said it is "absolute negligence at the federal level" that Congress is not working aggressively to put an initial framework of regulation in place.
She also noted that AI company CEOs themselves are sounding the alarm about potential risks from their technology, which she called one of the most astounding elements to consider. Spanberger said regulation ultimately needs to happen at the federal level and on the global stage, with federal leadership leading the way.