Sen. Patty Murray called for federal artificial intelligence safeguards at an Olympia roundtable on Thursday, reviewing Washington state’s recent laws with state officials and industry experts while challenging the Trump administration’s reliance on voluntary industry commitments.
The discussion brought together representatives from the offices of Gov. Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown to examine protections covering AI-generated media, chatbots aimed at children and computer-generated sexual material involving minors. Murray argued that federal policymakers should act before harms become widespread, rather than leave safety decisions primarily to technology companies.
The meeting followed a Sept. 29 White House gathering attended by executives from companies including Amazon, OpenAI, Google and Meta. Those companies agreed to develop voluntary industry standards. President Donald Trump emphasized self-regulation at that event, while also pointing to existing federal law enforcement agencies as a source of oversight.
Murray rejected voluntary promises as an adequate substitute for federal rules. She said AI should be developed and used transparently and safely, with its benefits broadly shared. Her position reflects a central divide in the debate over AI governance: whether industry commitments and existing legal authorities provide sufficient protection, or whether the technology requires additional enforceable obligations.
Washington has pursued its own measures while comprehensive federal AI legislation remains stalled. Earlier this year, Ferguson signed three bills addressing different risks associated with the technology. One requires video, photographs and audio created or modified using AI to carry identifiable provenance information, making the involvement of AI easier to recognize.
Beau Perschbacher, a senior policy adviser to Ferguson, described the media measure as a response to uncertainty about authenticity and the risks posed by deepfakes. He said the state worked with industry on the legislation. Provenance information concerns a piece of content’s origin or processing history; it is distinct from determining whether the claims conveyed by that content are true.
A second measure requires chatbots directed at children to disclose that they are not human and prohibits manipulative engagement techniques. Another bars possession, distribution or viewing of computer-generated material depicting sexually explicit conduct involving minors. Together, the laws address both how people encounter AI systems and how synthetic content can be misused.
Participants nevertheless argued that state protections should be accompanied by national standards. Yuki Ishizuka, technology policy manager in the attorney general’s office, called for strong federal regulation with consistent rules across the country and bipartisan congressional leadership. Rob Eleveld, chief executive of the Transparency Coalition, similarly said states can protect user data but that national action would be preferable.
The roundtable also came one day after Sen. Maria Cantwell, the leading Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, released a framework containing six AI safety principles. The framework calls for enforceable development standards and protections for children, along with ongoing testing and reporting of serious failures. Cantwell said those principles should inform federal legislation.
Murray said she had not yet reviewed Cantwell’s proposal closely, though she considered some of its principles important. The Olympia discussion focused on safeguards Washington has already enacted and the participants’ case for extending protections through federal law.
Sources: The Spokesman-Review