But Pennsylvania lawmakers charged with adapting laws and regulations for the AI age are confident that 2025 is the year they’ll regain their balance.
Legislators are looking to set guidelines on how AI can be safely developed and used in the state, and promote a technology that's already widely embraced by industries, governments and the public.
To kickstart the year, the state House created a new Communications & Technology Committee that will have a hand in reviewing most AI-related proposals.
Legislators have scheduled a series of policy hearings across the state this spring and summer to hear testimony from AI leaders. In the fall, the General Assembly’s research arm is expected to publish a report with its recommendations for AI policy.
And, perhaps most importantly, Harrisburg lawmakers agree they must address the ever-expanding technology.
Tracy Pennycuick, the Montgomery County Republican who chairs the state Senate’s Communications & Technology Committee, said the steep learning curve that must be climbed to understand the complexities of AI was one factor limiting the ability to act in past legislative sessions.
“Everyone wants to protect the consumer from the bad actors, but let industry and government just exploit AI so that we can have the most efficient, cost-effective government and business possible,” Pennycuick said.
Incidents of AI misuse — including a case at Lancaster Country Day School last year where students allegedly used AI to generate nude images of underage classmates — have pressured lawmakers to act.
Pennycuick led the charge last year for a new law banning such AI-generated “deepfakes” and child porn. This year, among other AI policies, she wants the Legislature to classify any deepfake that portrays another person falsely or deceptively as forgery.
A GROWING TREND
Less than six months into the two-year legislative session, more than a dozen AI-related proposals have at least been circulated as memos among legislators.
Those proposals cover a broad range of restrictions, from a bill to require companies to disclose when they use AI to sell products in Pennsylvania (sponsored by Chester County Democratic Rep. Chris Pielli), to a proposal to ban foreign AI software from state-owned devices (introduced by Rep. Napoleon Nelson, a Democrat from Montgomery County).
Pennycuick said she’s optimistic lawmakers will pass multiple policies in the final months of this year or the beginning of 2026.
Pennsylvania was among the 31 states that adopted resolutions or passed legislation related to AI last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Colorado was the first to enact a comprehensive AI law, restricting AI from being used in a way that could discriminate against individuals of protected classes under federal and state laws.
Colorado’s law has faced plenty of blowback from AI developers, who say its definitions are too vague and all-encompassing. Business leaders are urging lawmakers to revise the law’s language before it goes into effect in February. Meanwhile, consumer protection groups say the law’s lack of strict testing of AI programs creates loopholes for companies to exploit.
Lawmakers in Pennsylvania are trying to avoid overbearing guidelines, according to Rep. Joe Ciresi, a Montgomery County Democrat who chairs the new House Communications & Technology Committee.
He said he and his colleagues are taking “meeting after meeting” with consumer protection groups and tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Adobe and TikTok to educate themselves on industry demands.
“We want to be able to run legislation that’s been vetted — that everyone has had an opportunity to hear about,” Ciresi said. “We want to make sure that we have the ability to explain what we’re doing, to understand what’s out there before we take that jump.”
MOVING FORWARD
The Pennsylvania House and Senate committees held a joint AI policy hearing in Pittsburgh on April 16 that featured testimony from economic development groups, AI researchers and developers about how western Pennsylvania can grow as a destination for the technology.
Ken Zapinski, director of public policy at Pittsburgh Works Together, said in his written testimony that promoting AI will benefit the state’s economy.
“The AI jobs themselves may go to Ph.D.s and keyboard wizards,” he said. “But it all starts with something far more fundamental and industrial — from skilled tradesmen and women building and operating the plants to produce enough electricity to power all those computers and algorithms.”
Joanna Doven, executive director of the Pittsburgh-based AI Strike Team, urged lawmakers to quickly pass policies to support the developers in the state, suggesting natural gas can assist in powering the AI data centers that require lots of electricity to keep them running.
Hearings in May and June will likely focus on how lawmakers can support AI innovation through energy policy, Pennycuick told LNP — LancasterOnline.
Though his comments largely focused on assisting Pittsburgh’s growth in the AI sector, Christopher Martin, the senior director of BNY’s AI Hub, suggested lawmakers look for ways to attract young graduates working in AI-related fields and “cultivate a vibrant AI ecosystem” to promote the technology statewide.
Sen. Majority Leader Joe Pittman and a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Matt Bradford both said they support the committees’ work on AI and will review any resulting proposals this year. Pittman and his Republican caucus hold a majority in the Senate, while Bradford’s Democrats hold a narrow edge in the House.
On April 24, the House Communications & Technology Committee is set to consider a proposal from Philadelphia Democrat Tarik Khan to ban AI misuse in political campaigns, and a resolution from Chester County Democrat Kristine Howard urging Congress to clarify federal copyright law to address concerns about AI-generated content being generated with data from existing copyrighted materials.
© 2025 LNP (Lancaster, Pa.). Visit lancasteronline.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
