The rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and its application by businesses has created a potential need for governmental regulation. While the federal government of the United States has largely sidestepped the issue of crafting law dictating limitations and expectations regarding the use of AI technology, US state legislatures have begun to take the lead in this area. Nonetheless, we know very little about how state legislatures have approached the design, pursuit, and adoption of AI policy and whether traditional political fault lines have manifested themselves in the AI issue area. Here, we gather data on the state-level adoption of AI policy, as well as roll call voting on AI bills (classified on the basis of consumer protection versus economic development), by state legislatures and analyze the political economy of AI legislation. We find that rising unemployment and inflation are negatively associated with a state’s AI policymaking. With respect to individual legislator support, we find that liberal lawmakers and Democrats are more likely to support bills establishing consumer protection requirements on AI usage. The results suggest that economic concerns loom large with AI and that traditional political fault lines may be establishing themselves in this area.

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调查美国各州人工智能立法的政治和内容

人工智能（AI）技术的迅速兴起及其在企业中的应用，产生了政府监管的潜在需求。尽管美国联邦政府在很大程度上回避了制定法律来规定人工智能技术使用的限制和期望的问题，但美国各州立法机构已经开始在这一领域发挥带头作用。尽管如此，我们对州立法机构如何设计、推行和采用人工智能政策以及传统政治断层线是否在人工智能问题领域表现出来知之甚少。在这里，我们收集州立法机构对人工智能政策的州级采用情况以及人工智能法案的点名投票（根据消费者保护与经济发展进行分类）的数据，并分析人工智能立法的政治经济学。我们发现，失业率上升和通货膨胀与国家的人工智能政策制定呈负相关。就个别立法者的支持而言，我们发现自由派立法者和民主党更有可能支持建立人工智能使用消费者保护要求的法案。结果表明，人工智能对经济的担忧日益凸显，而传统的政治断层线可能正在该领域建立起来。