New bill to protect American citizens access to AI – Please read and share
8 hours ago
- Two proposed bills (federal and Minnesota) aim to protect lawful access to computation, advanced AI, and open-weight models by prohibiting government restrictions based on system capability.
- Current regulations (e.g., Executive Order 14110, AI Diffusion Framework) target AI by capability, creating a gap where large entities retain access while individuals and small businesses get degraded versions.
- The bills take the opposite approach: government retains power to punish harmful conduct (fraud, weapons development, etc.) but cannot restrict tools solely because of their capability.
- Key provisions include a statutory right to compute and AI, no capability restrictions, no backdoor enforcement via intermediaries, parity between government and citizen access, protection of open model weights as free expression, and a three-year expiration for restrictions unless re-justified.
- The bills do not require model release, affect export controls, or legalize harmful conduct; they explicitly preserve existing laws against fraud, intrusion, and child exploitation.
- Precedent: Montana enacted the first Right to Compute Act in 2025; these drafts are stricter, withholding authority for capability restrictions rather than subjecting them to a balancing test.
- The drafts are in the public domain and require a sponsor for introduction; they use strong language requiring explicit reference to override, but cannot bind future legislatures.