After passing a few AI laws in 2024, this state's legislature might have more in store next session

This story was originally published by Idaho Capital Sun.

This year, the Idaho Legislature passed three new laws to regulate artificial intelligence — targeting explicit and political deep fakes, and AI-generated material that is exploitative of children.

And before the Idaho Legislature reconvenes in January, a legislative panel is studying AI for possible new state laws.

The Artificial Intelligence Working Group met Friday in the Idaho State Capitol Building to hear from three AI experts about the technology’s legal challenges and promises.

“I think a different version of this quote was said earlier. ‘Don’t worry about artificial intelligence,’” Erick Herring, partner at the software engineering company Vynyl, told lawmakers. "'Worry about what you know the entrenched powers are going to do to you with artificial intelligence.’”

Herring said he thinks that’s true — especially geopolitically. 

“I think we need to worry about other nations getting ahead of us on this,” he said.

Idaho Lawmakers Play With AI

As the meeting wrapped up, Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, the panel’s co-chair, told lawmakers that he’d been playing around with AI during the meeting. He said he’d asked an AI tool to create an image of him. 

The image, which he showed the Idaho Capital Sun afterward, depicted him with an earring. He told the Sun that he thought the tool might believe he was female based on his first name, Kelly. 

“That was interesting,” Anthon told lawmakers. “… There will be applications that I can see that will really improve the efficiency of government, for the taxpayer and for the average Idaho. There are dangers with it, like I’ve already talked about, in terms of the judiciary and the way we apply. And there will be calls for it, I’m afraid.”

The panel’s other co-chair, Rep. Jeff Ehlers, R-Meridian, recited closing remarks that he said were generated by ChatGPT. 

“As we conclude today’s discussion on artificial intelligence, it’s clear that we stand in a pivotal moment in shaping the future of this transformative technology. AI holds immense potential to drive innovation, improve public services and create new economic opportunities,” Ehlers said. “However, with this power comes a shared responsibility to ensure its ethical development, transparency and equitable access. As lawmakers, it is our duty to foster an environment where AI can thrive while safeguarding against risks that could undermine privacy, fairness and societal wellbeing. Let us work together to craft thoughtful, balanced policies that will help harness AI’s benefits while addressing its challenges, ensuring that it serves the common good for generations to come.”

Ehlers said he didn’t necessarily agree with the AI-generated remarks. But, he said, “That’s what AI wants us to do.”

What AI Experts Told the Idaho Legislature’s Artificial Intelligence Working Group

Director of the Digital Innovation Center of Excellence at the Idaho National Laboratory Christopher Ritter testified that advancements in AI have shown promise. But he said policymakers should mull how to keep Idaho and the U.S. in its current leadership position.

No one, at this point, would recommend replacing a software engineer with AI, he said, but generative AI is already helping boost software engineers’ capabilities, saying that Google estimates 25% of its code being built is through AI.

“The honest answer is, right now, AI is not going to take over the world, and doesn’t even have a live connection to do anything like that,” Ritter said. 

Everyone listening to the committee hearing owns thousands or even more copyrights when they place creative ideas into tangible mediums, like emails, poems and photos, said Bradlee Frazer, a partner at the law firm Hawley Troxell. But portions of works generated by AI don’t have copyright protections. 

“You divide things up. You put it into an AI bucket and a human-authored bucket. And the human-authored bucket has copyright protection,”he said. 

Users of generative-AI tools trained by scraping mounds of data from the internet run the risk of infringing on copyright protections, Frazer said — pointing legislators to an example of an AI-generated scary crown that looked similar to Pennywise, a movie based on the novel “It” by Stephen King.

“How would you feel if you knew that your website was being scraped by this large language model to trade a commercial enterprise without acknowledgement, without pay and without permission? I have concerns about that, as you can tell,” he told lawmakers.

Frazer said he constantly tracks AI-related litigation and copyright regulations to understand how the law might change. But scraping is copyright infringement in the U.S., Frazer said, until a judge says otherwise. 

He also acknowledged how AI has shown promise to boost productivity, in his own work and even in medical diagnostics. 

Most of the legislation Frazer has seen has been focused on providing disclaimers on work that uses AI.

Next Steps for the Idaho Legislature’s AI Working Group

The panel is expected to meet again before the Legislature reconvenes Jan. 6. 

In the future, the panel could dive deeper and potentially focus on potential legislation on a range of issues. Committee members say they hope the panel can hear from national groups working with state legislatures, and to understand how AI is being used in education. 

“This is, of course, something that will permeate almost every corner of policy I think the state will face in coming years and decades. And so it’s incumbent upon us as legislators to continue to study it,” Anthon said.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and X.