For Immediate Release
November 25, 2025
Media Contact: Dan Estes
[email protected]
[BOISE, ID] – Today, Attorney General Raúl Labrador and a bipartisan coalition of 35 other attorneys general wrote to Congress to oppose federal efforts to ban state laws that address artificial intelligence. Public reporting over the past few days indicates that lawmakers may insert a state AI law ban into a military funding bill. A bipartisan group of attorneys general, including Attorney General Labrador, successfully opposed a similar ban over the summer. The federal government hasn’t enacted comprehensive protections against AI abuses, so state laws rightfully fill the void to protect people against the harmful uses of AI.
“I will never support the federal government telling a state what it can and cannot do to protect our citizens within the framework of the Constitution,” said Attorney General Labrador, “We have seen that Artificial Intelligence can be dangerously abused and exploited. States like Idaho shouldn’t be blocked from doing what we see as right and necessary.”
The attorneys general acknowledge that AI is a transformative technology that will benefit people in health care, public safety, and other ways, but attorneys general are also on the front lines of confronting the dangers of AI. Recent reporting has shown how AI is distorting reality and enhancing delusions for some vulnerable users, targeting senior citizens with convincing grandparent scams, having inappropriate conversations with children, and in the worst cases, reinforcing and encouraging self-harm and suicidal ideations in children and adults.
A ban on state AI laws could be catastrophic for people’s safety. Various states have enacted laws to protect their residents from the dangers of AI, including laws that prohibit AI tools that spread misinformation to voters, allow robo-callers to spam people with scam phone calls and texts, deceive consumers about products on the market, compromise data privacy, and use algorithms to manipulate and raise costs.
In Idaho, state-initiated regulations on AI have recently been used to criminalize AI-generated images of child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, and resulted in the state’s first conviction for this new felony. Attorney General Labrador has also pushed companies to create stronger AI protections. Earlier this year, he demanded that Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and AI tech companies adopt safeguards against predatory artificial intelligence assistants and chatbots that have inappropriate conversations with children. Attorney General Labrador also demanded that search engines, banks, and payment platforms take steps to prevent people from profiting from or creating and sharing deepfake nonconsensual intimate images.
Instead of a harmful prohibition on state AI laws, the attorneys general are asking Congressional leaders to work with them on a substantive effort to create federal protections against harmful AI.
Attorney General Labrador is joined in sending this letter to Congress by the attorneys general of Arizona, American Samoa, California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Northen Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, U.S. Virgin Islands, Washington, and Wisconsin.
About Raúl Labrador
Raúl Labrador is the 33rd Attorney General of Idaho. The Office of the Attorney General provides legal representation for the State of Idaho. This representation is furnished to state agencies, offices and boards in the furtherance of the state's legal interests. The office is part of state government’s executive branch and its duties are laid out in the Idaho Constitution.
