Can the US regulate AI without slowing innovation?
episodePreviously titled “Who regulates AI when Washington won’t?” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 6, 2026
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Why is regulation urgent as AI moves from answers to actions?
AI is moving fast. Congress is not. In Europe, lawmakers have already passed the sweeping AI Act. But in the US, there's no single federal rulebook. Instead, AI governance is taking shape through a patchwork of state laws, federal guidance, voluntary company promises, limited FTC enforcement, and lawsuits after something goes wrong. That may be the American way. Let innovation move first, then let courts and regulators sort out accountability later. But as AI tools move from answering questions to taking action, writing code, advising users, influencing decisions, and interacting with people in vulnerable moments, is that enough? Hello, and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Monday, July 27th, 2026.
Joining me now to break it all down is Sarah Myers West, co-executive director of AI Now Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization producing diagnosis and policy research on AI. Sarah, thank you so much for being here.
Thank you so much for having me.
What real-world risks does generative AI already pose to people’s lives?
Before we dive into regulation, I want you to just briefly touch on why so many of us, including tech companies themselves, feel it so necessary. Can you lay out the risks we're all facing because of generative AI?
Sure. So AI systems have been in deployment going back decades, right? Different forms of AI have been used in a variety of ways, from the very impactful areas of being used to shape whether or not a health insurance company is going to approve a claim that we make, whether we're We're going to get called in for a job interview. What's the cost of the goods that we're buying off of the shelves? There's many ways in which AI systems have already been in deployment and already shaping everyday people's lives. And exactly as you've said in your intro, by and large, regulators deal with the impacts of these systems on people's lives mostly after the fact. It's when a use of AI goes wrong, it discriminates against somebody or it makes an error that can cause some sort of harm or it might be used for scams or fraud.
That's the point at which we come in to remedy the systems. The current status quo is one in which people are getting... impacted in ways that can affect their resources, their life chances, but without that deeper scrutiny that we need as the frontline of protection.
Well, on an institutional basis, why can't the U.S. government regulate generative AI like any other technology?
Well, we do have a lot of laws already on the books that could be enforced for AI companies. I think lots of policymakers have said there really isn't an AI exception to the laws on the books. And I do think that that's a really good starting point. I think that by and large, though, we haven't seen that kind of front-footed scrutiny of this sector in the ways that are necessary, given the impact that it can have on many people.
As I mentioned, Europe has taken a very different path in the U.S.
Why doesn’t existing U.S. law automatically solve AI harms?
with the AI Act, creating a broad risk-based framework for AI at a high level. How is Europe tackling regulation and is it working? And if it is, could the U.S. implement a similar strategy here?
So in the European context, regulators have passed this very large regulatory package called the AI Act. And what the AI Act does is it, by and large, sort of breaks down different tiers of uses of AI by risk. It identifies that certain uses of AI are pretty low risk and thus don't really need very much scrutiny. Some are higher risk and domains that need a lot more attention. And there are some domains where the use of AI poses just an unacceptable risk and it can't be used at all. This approach, I think, has some benefits, some detractions. I think one of the benefits is that it allows for that attunement to the actual context of use. One of the detractions, though, is that a lot of AI is not developed for a particular use case, but is general purpose technology and thus needs more scrutiny before it's out in broad use.
In the US context, we largely have not taken that kind of like broad strokes approach to the AI sector, but it is one of the paths forward that some policymakers have considered.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Why is regulation urgent as AI moves from answers to actions?
0:05–1:13
2
What real-world risks does generative AI already pose to people’s lives?
1:13–3:23
3
Why doesn’t existing U.S. law automatically solve AI harms?
3:23–7:43
4
How does the EU’s AI Act classify risks and could the U.S. copy it?
7:43–12:15
5
How are state laws like California, New York and Illinois trying to limit AI risks?
12:15–13:12
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Excerpt
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