Governors Team Up on AI as Washington Stalls

Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore says governors from both parties are preparing to team up on AI, arguing that states can no longer wait for Washington to set the rules for the fast-moving technology. Speaking to the Associated Press this week after an innovation conference in Baltimore, the current chair of the National Governors Association said he is assembling a bipartisan group of governors to build a shared AI framework, according to reporting republished by the Hamilton County Herald. His co-chair, Republican Gov. Mike Braun of Indiana, will partner with him on the effort, and more governors from both parties are expected to join.

The decision to team up on AI comes with unusually sharp criticism of the federal government's pace. Moore dismissed President Donald Trump's meeting with AI executives at the White House this week as a "billionaire boys club," and he faulted Congress for leaving the capital until after next month's midterm elections without addressing the technology, as reported by Broadband Breakfast. He told the wire service that federal leaders hold "a unique leadership role" on the issue, and that without them, the governors "cannot just sit on our hands."

A week of action in Maryland

The coalition announcement caps a deliberate build-up by the Maryland governor. Last month he signed an executive order establishing guardrails for transparent and accountable data center development. Earlier this week he convened the Maryland Innovation Summit in Baltimore, drawing around 400 leaders from government, business, labor, philanthropy, and academia, where the state's innovation team released a new survey of senior business decision-makers on AI adoption, productivity, and workforce expectations, according to the governor's office. "Marylanders should not have to wait for Washington to decide what this technology will mean for their jobs, their families, and their communities," he said at the gathering, outlining principles of "protect our people, center our workers, and keep our kids safe."

The benchmark survey gives Maryland its most detailed evidence base yet on how employers in the state are actually using the technology — a data point the governor's team says will shape policy rather than vibes. It is a notable shift from the vague pledges that usually follow tech conferences: a sitting governor is building a record of what businesses want from AI before writing the rules. For a workforce watching automated tools reshape hiring, scheduling, and customer service, that groundwork matters more than any single speech — it is exactly the kind of evidence governors need as they team up on AI rules across party lines.

States move while Washington waits

Maryland is far from alone. In the past month, executives in Maryland, California, Illinois, Oregon, and Virginia have issued executive orders or taken other steps toward AI standards, and Republican governors have joined the trend, with Utah's Spencer Cox and Texas' Greg Abbott tightening rules around data center development. Meanwhile the Federal Trade Commission is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI firms over potential consumer risks — a probe reported in late September 2026 that does not establish wrongdoing but signals heavier scrutiny ahead. GenZ NewZ reported on the launch of that federal probe last week. California also enacted worker-protection laws requiring human review of automated disciplinary and termination decisions, plus greater transparency around AI-related job cuts, according to THEJO AI's roundup of the week's AI news.

The flurry of state-level activity underlines Moore's core argument: with tech executives issuing increasingly dire warnings about the risks of the technology, someone has to act, and right now that someone is not Congress. AI now touches jobs, education, privacy, elections, and public safety, yet the federal government has left the biggest questions — what systems are safe, who is liable when they fail, and how workers are protected — essentially unanswered. That vacuum is also what makes this particular attempt to team up on AI different from past governors’ pledges: it arrives with fresh data, executive orders already on the books, and a bipartisan pair at the top. For readers, that vacuum is the reason a governors' coalition could matter more than it sounds: the guardrails that shape how AI is deployed in workplaces and classrooms are currently being written state by state, a story we are tracking on the AI News desk.

The patchwork problem

But there are real limits to what governors can accomplish by banding together. The wire service noted that state power is constrained when dealing with a technology that spans the country and the globe, and AI companies have long warned that a patchwork of state rules is exactly the outcome they fear most. Worse for the coalition's ambitions, states do not even agree with each other. California's governor recently vetoed a bill that would have barred companies from advertising chatbot-based mental health therapy, calling it overly broad despite unanimous Senate passage, and he separately rejected stricter recording rules for smart glasses, pointing to existing privacy protections.

That disagreement is the shadow over every effort to team up on AI from the statehouses. One governor's responsible guardrail is another's job-killing overreach, and the technology's biggest players can simply relocate workloads to the friendliest jurisdiction. The coalition's next step is a shared framework, though its authors have not said when it will be published or whether it will carry real enforcement weight. Still, Moore's bet is that momentum beats perfection: governors moving in the same direction could set the de facto national standard while Washington stays on the sidelines. Whether that framework survives contact with fifty different legislatures is the open question — and one the governors' group will have to answer quickly.