Virginia AI bill critics claim economy is at risk, want Youngkin veto

Think tank R Street Institute agrees.

It called the bill a “heavy-handed effort to regulate artificial intelligence systems” and described it as “burdensome and unnecessary,” in a letter last month to the governor.

R Street also claimed the bill would endanger the success of Virginia as a leader in digital innovation, a position the state has maintained “thanks to the light-touch regulatory approach the Commonwealth and the nation as a whole adopted a generation ago to spur the internet and digital revolution.”

“HB 2094 threatens this success,” the letter continues. “The measure essentially builds on the failed regulatory model that the European Union (EU) uses to regulate digital technology and now AI.  The EU’s compliance-heavy regulatory regime has decimated competition, investment, and new business formation across the continent, leading experts to label Europe ‘the biggest loser’ in the global digital technology race.”