Thousands of state legislators and staff are in Chicago this week for the National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual summit, including multiple members from Delaware's general assembly.
The conference focuses on AI this year. A Stanford University report says 150 AI-related bills passed into law in 2025 across state legislatures. And more than 1,500 bills related to AI were under consideration in statehouses this year.
State Senator Eric Buckson (R-Camden) attended a presentation called “The Promise and Peril of AI" at the NCSL conference. He said that the professor, Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel Laureate who teaches at the University of Toronto, told legislators about AI's capacity to resist a request or lie.
"He showed examples...where AI could literally dissect a sentence and understand that it's talking about itself," Buckson said.
And as more power is turned over to AI, Buckson said that will should be at the forefront of people's minds.
"Is there a chance that (AI) could become almost real and no longer listen to the programmers?" Buckson asked. "And this gentleman said, 'Absolutely.' And that's scary. That's what we have to guard against."
One bill considered this year in Dover suggested an investment in extended reality and AI tools for Delaware public schools– but it didn’t pass. Another setting expectations for AI in medical spaces did pass.
Buckson said legislating AI-related issues like these, "may be low-hanging fruit." He doesn't know how state lawmakers can legislate to protect against reliance on or the failure of AI. And over-regulating may put the US at risk of falling behind competitors in the tech space.
"Ensuring that there's a human element to oversee it is important," he said. And a future with AI will rely on computer scientists and engineers, "to ensure that the safety factors are in place."
Federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle introduced possible regulatory AI frameworks this summer, and multiple pieces of more specific legislation have been put forward. President Donald Trump issued an executive order last year that says, "AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation." And he is opposed to states developing their own policies on AI.
Two years ago, Delaware's General Assembly set up the Delaware AI Commission House Bill with HB 333 to study state policy for AI use and safety. It also has a sandbox committee that considers how the state can regulate agentic artificial intelligence and its application to corporate governance.
House Majority Whip Ed Osienski (D-Newark) was also at the NCLS conference. He doesn't expect states to stop efforts to address AI, "as we start learning how (AI) is going to affect, you know, society in general...I'm sure we're going to be seeing much more."
Osienski chairs the House Labor Committee. And he sat on a panel at the NCSL related AI and workforce development. Osienski says lawmakers on that panel considered "how (AI) is going to be used, and the (state) workforce development boards need to do to either up-skill or find new skills for the workforce."
Both Osienski and Buckson said they received a stipend to attend the conference from NCLS for speaking roles. Osienski also attended an East Coast Transportation Coalition meeting to discuss reliable transportation funding options with other lawmakers. Buckson sat on a panel about PFAS or "forever chemicals" regulation with lawmakers from California, New Mexico, and Maryland.
