With little progress on artificial-intelligence legislation in Congress, some Washington leaders are looking at how the state could regulate the technology.
Early discussions are underway about bills for next year’s legislative session to set new guardrails around safety, privacy and liability for AI.
But the lead lawmaker in the state Senate said there’s no consensus yet about what to prioritize. He also cautioned that related legislation to regulate data centers is expected to take up significant time in the session, which begins in January.
“Although there’s a lot of general anxiety about AI, I think we’re a little bit light on specific proposals that have been kind of well worked and vetted,” said Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle.
“That isn’t to say that there isn’t anything that could pass, but I’m not certain exactly what it would be yet,” Pedersen added.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray convened a handful of state officials in Olympia last week to discuss AI regulation. Though she wants to see a strong federal safety floor, Murray also said states have a critical role to play in AI policy.
No state lawmakers attended Murray’s roundtable, but there were senior advisers from the offices of Gov. Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown.
Others in the state’s congressional delegation are giving AI attention, as well.
Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, also a Democrat, released an AI safety framework, seeking to set audit requirements and standards for advanced AI models.
And U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal introduced a framework calling for the federal government to begin regulating AI firms like banks.
But there’s no serious momentum behind AI proposals in Congress before the midterms, and President Donald Trump is against regulating the industry.
Officials here say Washington state shouldn’t wait.
“In the absence of meaningful federal action, states have a duty to protect their residents,” Yuki Ishizuka, the technology policy manager in the state attorney general’s office, said at Murray’s roundtable.
State Rep. Clyde Shavers, D-Clinton, who serves on a state artificial-intelligence task force, is preparing three AI bills.
Establishing AI product liability is his top priority. Shavers wants to ensure developers face clear accountability when their software causes harm.
He is also drafting a safety framework — which he noted will be quite similar" to Illinois' recent AI safety law — requiring the largest AI companies to publish “catastrophic risk” mitigation policies and undergo annual third-party safety audits.
Shavers’ third proposal would establish privacy and security standards for student-facing AI tools in K-12 classrooms to ensure products used in schools are "safe, effective, transparent, and protective of student privacy while keeping educators in control of instructional decisions.
Despite Washington’s tech-heavy private sector, state Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, a cybersecurity professor who will leave office in January after an unsuccessful run for a U.S. House seat this year, said that tech expertise is lacking in Olympia.
“A lot of legislators don't understand it, so they have a hesitancy to be supportive of the policy,” he said when asked why more recommendations from Washington’s AI task force haven't been enacted into law.
Rob Eleveld, CEO of the Transparency Coalition, an AI policy nonprofit, and Ishizuka, with the attorney general’s office, said at the recent roundtable that AI regulation must go hand-in-hand with foundational data privacy laws at both state and federal levels.
Washington is not among the 23 states that have enacted comprehensive consumer privacy laws, according to the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
Battles over data privacy have been ongoing since 2019. Boehnke said broad efforts stalled over whether individuals should be able to sue companies that misuse their data. Those fights “just kind of burned too many bridges,” leaving lawmakers wary to start again.
Rep. Lisa Callan, D-Issaquah, agreed that Washington needs a baseline consumer privacy law before it can build other AI protections on top of it. Disputes over data privacy, she said, helped derail her bill to protect children online in past sessions.
Callan was the lead House sponsor of a law approved this year that aims to set new safeguards for how AI chatbots interact with minors. Ferguson requested that legislation.
Beau Perschbacher, a senior policy adviser to Ferguson, said at the roundtable that he couldn’t speak to specific proposals the governor is willing to support yet. But he said cyberattacks involving AI agents in the last six months have shifted greater attention in the governor’s office onto AI safety.
Perschbacher said Ferguson’s office is exploring questions like whether companies should have to notify the state before they release more advanced models, so that the government has more time to protect infrastructure.
Illinois’ new law requires the largest developers to publish safety reports on their websites when releasing new models and send quarterly risk summaries to the state’s emergency management agency, but it doesn’t require notifications in advance.
During the roundtable, Murray and others also suggested policymakers need to seek ways to protect workers who could be displaced from their jobs by AI. Ideas ranged from taxing AI profits, mandating human oversight in key sectors, and reskilling programs.
Pedersen praised Murray’s efforts but said he’s “skeptical that the Congress will be able to do anything significant” on artificial intelligence. If Washington decides it needs effective regulation, he said, “that’s going to be up to the state.”
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