As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to grow, and social media becomes more of a daily influence in the lives of Ohioans, state lawmakers are taking notice. There are dozens of bills in the legislature right now that are designed to deal with artificial intelligence, but several are stalled like a download on bad Wi-Fi.
Ohio has already entered the age of AI, and “everyone is going to have to be a computer scientist in some way going forward," said Rep. Mike Odioso (R-Green Twp.) in an interview. "No matter what your profession is, what your occupation, whether it’s blue collar, white collar.”
Odioso is the sponsor of House Bill 594, a bill that seeks to change educational standards to require students in Ohio take one unit of computer science before they graduate from high school.
“What you have to do with AI is you have to understand the inputs and in all sorts of different fields," Odioso said. "You have to understand the logic of AI and by extension, its weaknesses, its problems. Being able to spot AI nonsense but interacting with AI and again this is a moving target.”
Rep. Christine Cockley (D-Columbus) said she thinks the state needs an AI commission. So she’s sponsoring House Bill 663 to create it, along with Rep. Tex Fischer (R-Boardman).
“It would bring together people from all different sectors to determine what we are using it for, how we are using it, what best practices are, and make recommendations to the legislature," Cockley said in an interview.
Cockley is also working with co-sponsor Rep. Ty Mathews (R-Findlay) on two other pieces of AI legislation. House Bill 525 would put limits on how mental health providers could use AI. It would ensure that the determination for the diagnosis and the treatment for it is prescribed by the provider, not the technology. House Bill 524 would require developers and platforms to take action to prevent AI from giving out information about how someone could hurt or kill themselves and direct them to sources for therapy instead.
Sen. Bill Blessing (R-Colerain Twp.) has proposed similar legislation in Senate Bill 163, but it goes in a slightly different direction.
“At the highest level, it seeks to criminalize AI-generated sexual material for example,” Blessing said. “It seeks to go after AI-generated voice. Another good point here is in identity fraud is a major problem in the sense that AI now literally sounds exactly like somebody else and defrauds senior citizens out of their finances if they think it’s one of their children calling them asking for money.”
Blessing’s bill would require AI generated material bear a watermark identifying it as such. It would also make it a felony to spread AI-generated pornographic material featuring an actual person or a minor, or to defraud someone with the help of AI. Blessing said companies have been pushing back on rules set by government on AI.
“The issue I have found is that the tech industry does not want to be regulated,” Blessing said.
Rep. Thaddeus Claggett (R-Licking County) has proposed House Bill 469 to make it clear that AI cannot be recognized as a person in Ohio, “which means they cannot be spouses, officers, property holders, employees, or employers under Ohio law.” The bill's gotten a lot of attention and even some ridicule for banning marriage with chatbots, but he said it's more about stopping AI from becoming embedded into financial and legal decisions and creating ethical problems.
Federal action could be forthcoming
The Trump administration has indicated it wants to establish some rules for the tech industry. And if federal action is taken, many of the bills under consideration now would be rendered moot.
Mathews said he has a bill for that situation. Matthews said House Bill 628 will provide a special verification process dictated by the industry and the state.
“We are essentially allowing the state attorney general to license a third-party verification process. For example, a green check mark, right?" Mathews said. "The industry will decide on what are some standards to put in place that they think are acceptable, then they can opt in.”
None of these bills are close to passage. All are still in the committee they were initially assigned to, and none have have had more than three hearings; some haven't even had one.
Regulating data centers
It’s not just AI itself that lawmakers are targeting. Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said her members are concerned about data centers that come along with AI and are proposing several bills.
“We have a suite of bills that will address things like responsibility when it comes to the grid, tax break repeals, really making sure data centers will invest in local communities if they get the green light by local communities to even be there,” Antonio said. “We are very concerned and so we are looking at legislation that will regard home rule for those data centers so local communities can say 'yea' or 'nay' to one coming into their community and definitely using water and resources responsibly.”
While lawmakers are looking at these and other bills to put guardrails on AI, many said the industry is growing so fast that it is tough for them to keep up with it.
