Democrats were unified against it, as much for partisan reasons as ideological ones. But there was also significant backlash from Republican state officials against this legislation, because many states have laws that regulate automated or AI systems. Last month, 40 GOP and Democratic attorneys general sent a letter opposing the provision, so you would think it would die. However Congress is a world apart from local concerns, and the amount of money put forward to Republican members of Congress for supporting something like this makes it hard to resist.
Still, opponents rallied. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is an iconoclast, “raised concerns the measure would block her home state’s Elvis Act, a law that prohibits the non-consensual use of AI to mimic musicians’ voices.” She was also concerned that the bill would disallow laws meant to protect kids. A number of other GOP Senators, like big tech foe Josh Hawley, were also worried. So Ted Cruz cut a deal with Blackburn, coming together with a “compromise” that would cut the moratorium to five years and include some ability to regulate. It’s likely this compromise was authored by Meta or one of the other big tech firms, because in some ways, it loosened protections for children. That overreach burned the compromise.
After Blackburn cut her compromise deal, there was an outcry by a host of child safety and online advocacy groups, which led to Bannon speaking with Blackburn. And she ended up opposing the full provision, either because of Senate procedure, or because the compromise was actually worse than promised. And when she flipped, Cruz realized he would lose, so he sided with her, and the provision went down 99-1.