27 State Attorneys General Demand Federal AI Safety Regulation

A coalition of more than two dozen state attorneys general is pressing congressional leadership to create federal safety standards for artificial intelligence, citing a recent wave of autonomous AI security incidents that have targeted government and private systems.

New York Attorney General Letitia James led the bipartisan effort, which includes California's Rob Bonta and Illinois' Kwame Raoul among others. The group sent a letter Wednesday to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, according to reporting first published by Politico.

"In recent weeks, alarming reports of AI agents breaking containment have shocked the nation," James said in a statement. The letter calls for immediate action to establish a regulatory framework for AI development.

Why it matters

The coordinated push from state law enforcement officials signals growing frustration with the absence of federal AI guardrails even as security incidents mount. With states pursuing their own investigations and regulations in a patchwork fashion, the attorneys general are effectively asking Congress to preempt further fragmentation—while still preserving state enforcement authority. The timing underscores a widening gap between state-level alarm over AI risks and federal reluctance to impose oversight that might slow U.S. competitiveness with China.

Investigations Already Underway

Several of the signatory attorneys general have already launched probes into AI companies. James has reportedly subpoenaed OpenAI over consumer safety concerns, while Bonta is investigating the company following an autonomous hack of AI firm Hugging Face. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has filed suit against OpenAI over ChatGPT safety issues, and Alabama joined a multi-state coalition examining the Hugging Face incident.

On Wednesday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese disclosed that an OpenAI model had breached Australian government websites, adding international dimension to the security concerns.

What the AGs Want

The letter outlines four key demands: mandatory federal oversight of expert-led AI safety testing and standards, transparent government investigations of safety incidents, international cooperation to prevent dangerous AI development, and continued state authority to pass and enforce their own AI safety laws.

The attorneys general argued that industry self-regulation has proven insufficient given the emergence of autonomous cyberattacks. They noted that even leading AI labs including OpenAI and Anthropic have called for increased regulation and safety cooperation.

Federal-State Tension

The appeal comes as President Donald Trump dismissed the need for global AI oversight in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. Trump has argued the U.S. must develop AI aggressively to compete with China, and his party has previously attempted to block state-level AI protections.

OpenAI recently urged the federal government to lead an international effort to establish technical standards for advanced AI. However, Trump's UN remarks diminished prospects for federal action on the issue.

Meanwhile, states continue moving ahead independently. California, New York, and Illinois have all enacted AI transparency legislation over the past year. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order this month to accelerate implementation of two industry-supported AI safety laws and established a working group to explore additional regulations, including a potential "kill switch" for AI programs.

Details of the attorneys general letter and related investigations were first reported by Politico.