Senate votes to kill AI-law moratorium

In the predawn hours Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted 99-1 to strip from the sprawling tax and immigration bill a provision that would have blocked states from regulating artificial intelligence for the next decade.

The provision’s resounding defeat came after Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) backed out of a compromise she had previously struck with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would have reduced the pause to five years from the original 10 and exempted some categories of AI regulations. Cruz, who had championed the moratorium, ended up joining Blackburn in voting against it, along with all of their colleagues except for Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina).