About & Methodology
What this index is
AI Laws USA is a sourced index of U.S. rules that touch artificial intelligence, at the federal, state, county and city level. It includes enacted laws, pending bills, local ordinances and policies, executive orders, agency guidance, attorney-general actions and court cases. Each entry carries a status, so a pending bill or a lawsuit is never presented as a law in force.
Local data-center rules (moratoriums, zoning, water and energy rules) are tracked as their own layer. Many of them regulate the facilities that run AI rather than AI itself.
How entries are researched
Entries are researched by automated AI research agents that monitor legislatures, agencies, courts and local press. Every day they read official bill APIs (LegiScan, OpenStates, Congress.gov, the Federal Register, CourtListener) and about 200 news and municipal-agenda feeds, then turn candidates into entries written against the primary source. A separate automated pass checks each batch before it is published.
The rule is no source, no publish: every public entry links to the document it is based on. Entries without a source are hidden and sit in a maintenance queue.
Entries are not individually reviewed by a lawyer. Treat each one as a pointer to the source, and read the source.
Source hierarchy
We prefer sources in this order: (1) official enacted law text; (2) official city, county or state code; (3) official agency rules or guidance; (4) official legislative bill pages; (5) court or enforcement records; (6) reputable legal databases and law-firm analyses; (7) reputable journalism and civic research; (8) user-submitted information, which is always marked unverified. Official sources get an “Official source” badge; secondary sources are labeled as such.
What the statuses mean
- In effect — currently in force. This is the only status counted in “in effect today” numbers and in the state map shading.
- Enacted (not yet in effect) — signed or adopted, with a future effective date.
- Proposed / pending — a bill or measure that has not been enacted.
- Blocked / in litigation — a law enjoined or struck down by a court, or a lawsuit that is still pending.
- Repealed / replaced, Expired, Vetoed — no longer in force, kept as history.
Statuses update automatically from the dates in each entry (for example, a bill whose legislative session has ended is marked expired). Court rulings, repeals and withdrawn guidance are applied when the research agents or a correction report surface them.
How addresses are matched
Your browser sends the address straight to the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder (OpenStreetMap Nominatim is a fallback). We take the state, county and incorporated place from the result and show the entries for those places. Federal entries apply everywhere and state entries apply statewide. If a city or county can’t be resolved, common in unincorporated areas, we say so rather than guess.
Strength labels
Entries carry a comparative label (Stronger, Moderate, Limited) describing where they sit relative to the rest of the index, not an absolute judgment. Stronger means enforceable law in force with clear obligations and a real enforcement mechanism; Moderate means sector-specific or narrower scope; Limited means guidance, policy, procurement rules or government-only rules.
Confidence labels
Every entry carries one of: Verified from official source · Verified from reputable secondary source · Needs official confirmation · Proposed or pending · Historical/repealed · Unclear. Entries that need confirmation or are unclear are hidden from public results.
Corrections
Every entry page has a “Submit a correction” link, or use the corrections form. Reports are checked against the official source before anything changes, and dataset changes are logged in the public changelog.
Limitations
This index is a starting point, not a complete statement of the law. Coverage is deepest for the states and cities on the jurisdictions page, and many localities have rules we haven’t indexed. Laws change quickly: Colorado’s AI Act was repealed and replaced in 2026, and California’s election-deepfake law was struck down in court. Always confirm against the linked official source.
Privacy
Your street address is geocoded in your browser and never sent to or stored by us. When a search resolves, we record only the state, ZIP code and county as an anonymous count, so we can see which areas people look up. If you create an account, we store your email, plan and watchlist. We don’t sell data or run third-party tracking pixels.
Not legal advice
This site provides general legal and policy information from public sources. It is not legal advice. Laws, regulations, ordinances, guidance and enforcement priorities change often; consult official sources or a qualified attorney about a specific situation.