Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced a series of proposals to regulate the artificial intelligence industry in the state Tuesday, joining the national conversation about what government should do about the rapidly improving technology.

“With the speed with which AI is moving, Marylanders deserve guardrails that safeguard their rights, privacy, and dignity,” Moore said in a statement Tuesday morning as he headed to New York City to speak about AI at a Clinton Global Initiative conference panel.

Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic among government officials, with politicians from both parties sounding alarms that the technology’s development could spiral out of human control.

Former President Barack Obama, for example, said recently that government must enact “concrete proposals, laws and regulations that deal with serious safety concerns, anticipate AI’s impact on jobs and our kids, and make sure that AI’s benefits are widely spread.” President Donald Trump, on the other hand, has dismissed the need for AI guardrails, saying those with concerns are perpetuating a “HOAX.”

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Despite debate and concerns on Capitol Hill, Congress has failed to act on artificial intelligence — and governors like Moore are stepping in. In Virginia, Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, created an AI task force to “respond to the risks being foisted on Virginians by AI technology companies that should prioritize safe development and the protection of people and their livelihoods.”

Moore announced the broad outlines of several new proposals, including:

  • Regulating “frontier” AI companies, including worker protections, independent audits, whistleblower protections, public reporting and “72-hour incident reporting.”
  • Making it easier for individuals to seek relief when their likeness is cloned.
  • Prohibiting the use of algorithms that enable discrimination in tenant screening and collusion among landlords to increase rents.
  • Banning gambling companies from using algorithms to target problem gamblers.
  • Enacting AI protections for private-sector workers.
  • Boosting AI protections for children, including a “do no harm” policy for use of the technology in schools, while also ensuring that students “are ready for an AI-shaped world.”

Some of Moore’s proposals can be enacted through executive action; others will require approval by state lawmakers who convene for their next legislative session in January.

Moore acknowledged that his proposals build on existing state policies and laws.

In recent years, state lawmakers have created new laws that restrict the use of deepfake images in political campaigns, regulating how AI is used by health insurance companies and making it a crime to use AI to impersonate someone to cause harm — a measure inspired by a case at Pikesville High School where the former athletic director impersonated the principal in an effort to destroy his reputation.

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Moore issued an executive order in 2024 directing state agencies to use AI under principles such as fairness, innovation, privacy, safety, reliability and transparency. The order created an AI subcabinet in the governor’s office and directed it to create an “action plan.”

The executive order noted that the rapid pace of AI development is “unlocking new opportunities and risks for Maryland’s residents, workers, and economy.”

Under Moore, the state has an AI policy for state agencies, requiring them to classify risks before embarking on AI projects and banning uses that involve facial recognition without consent, emotional analysis and behavioral manipulation.