Patty Murray

OLYMPIA – Sen. Patty Murray convened a roundtable discussion Thursday with state policymakers and industry experts to learn how Washington has implemented safeguards for artificial intelligence and to urge the federal government to regulate the emerging technology.

The event comes as the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have largely taken a hands-off approach , and a White House AI summit saw industry leaders sign on to a voluntary safety agreement.

“Right now, there is virtually no regulation for AI at the federal level,” Murray said. “I want America to develop and deploy this technology in a way that is transparent and is safe, and we’ve got to make sure the benefits for AI are there for everyone, not just a few.”

President Donald Trump has so far shown little desire for federal regulations on the AI industry. Last week, Trump welcomed AI executives from Amazon, OpenAI, Google and Meta, among others, where the companies agreed to establish voluntary industry standards.

“There’s a belief that there should be tremendous self-regulation, and we automatically have regulation with the Department of Justice, the FBI, all of that,” Trump said during the Sept. 29 event. “But the self-regulation is very important.”

Murray pushed back on the idea of self-regulation, and said the country “can’t afford to regulate AI with nothing but a pinky promise.”

“We cannot just wait for the worst risks of this technology to become reality before we take action,” Murray said.

In the absence of federal action, Murray and representatives from the offices of Gov. Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown discussed some of the legislation state lawmakers have passed to regulate the industry. Earlier this year, Ferguson signed a trio of bills to protect users, including a requirement that video, photo or audio recordings created or enhanced by artificial intelligence include distinguishable provenance data that makes the AI-enhanced content more easily identifiable.

“For the public, there is real risk of: What is true anymore? And the risk of deep fakes,” Beau Perschbacher, Senior Policy Advisor to Ferguson, said during the panel. “So I think that was a good piece of legislation; we worked cooperatively with the industry, but really helping establish that standard, when you look at something, you can say, ‘OK, I have confidence now.’”

State lawmakers also required that AI chatbots targeting children include a disclaimer that the chatbot is not human, and prohibited the chatbots from using manipulative engagement techniques. Ferguson also signed legislation barring the possession, distribution or viewing of computer-generated sexually explicit conduct involving minors.

Still, policymakers said federal action must be taken to establish a guardrail on the technology.

“We believe that a strong federal regulation, with uniform laws across the nation, is the best path forward,” said Yuki Ishizuka, technology policy manager for the Attorney General’s office. “We need bipartisan leadership from Congress to ensure this technology is deployed safely.”

Rob Eleveld, CEO of the Transparency Coalition, said that while states can pass legislation to protect user data, “it would be better done at a national level.”

The discussion took place a day after Sen. Maria Cantwell released a framework with six AI safety principles, including clear, enforceable safety standards for AI development and protections for children, that she said should be included in any federal legislation. In a statement announcing the framework, Cantwell said “to manage risks from advanced AI systems, we need clear safety standards, continuous testing, and reporting of serious failures.”

Cantwell, the lead Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, would likely have considerable influence on any AI legislation should Democrats regain control of the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections.

Murray said that while she hasn’t closely examined Cantwell’s proposal, “some of the principles in it are extremely important.”