Maryland Legislature Passes AI Working Group Bill After Incorporating Civil Society Feedback

The Maryland General Assembly passed a law establishing a working group to study artificial intelligence, its impacts within the state, and potential avenues for regulation.

While the bill that was voted out of the House failed to allocate any spots in the working group to public interest representatives, the Senate amended the bill in response to extensive civil society pushback. The version of the working group as passed by the Legislature now incorporates representation from academics with expertise in AI, machine learning, or data science; nonprofits focused on civil rights or civil liberties; nonprofits with expertise in artificial intelligence focused on consumer protection; nonprofits focused on securing data privacy protections; and the AFL-CIO Tech Institute.

EPIC is happy to see that the Maryland Legislature included public interest voices in the state’s AI working group. However, it is urgent that Maryland also pass meaningful AI regulations that protect residents from the harms of discriminatory, unproven AI systems.

Establishing studies, task forces, or working groups does not protect people from the harms that AI causes every day—these bills must be paired with legislation placing robust, commonsense guardrails on AI to be effective. EPIC supported two bills in Maryland this session that would have placed such regulations on the use and development of high-risk AI systems, and we look forward to continuing to work with lawmakers on these efforts.