What AI rules apply in the United States?

Short answerThe United States has no single federal AI law. Existing laws on consumer protection, discrimination and lending already apply to AI, and a growing number of states and cities have their own rules, mainly for AI used in hiring and other important decisions about people. The picture is changing quickly, so check the current status before relying on any one rule.

US (federal): no single AI law, but the FTC has said there is no AI exemption from existing laws.
US (federal): a December 2025 executive order seeks one national framework and set up a task force to challenge some state AI laws.
New York City: employers using automated hiring tools need a yearly bias audit and must notify candidates.
Illinois and Texas: AI laws took effect on 1 January 2026; Colorado replaced its 2024 AI Act with a new law whose requirements start on 1 January 2027.
California: rules on AI in employment decisions are in effect; privacy-law rules on automated decision-making apply from 1 January 2027.

On this page:No single federal AI law Existing federal rules already cover AI State and city laws to know What this means in practice

No single federal AI law

At federal level there is no general AI statute like the EU AI Act. On 11 December 2025 the President signed an executive order, Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence. According to the White House fact sheet, it calls for a national legislative framework that would preempt state AI laws seen as stifling innovation, sets up an AI Litigation Task Force to challenge state laws, and links some federal funding to state AI laws. An executive order does not itself repeal state laws, so state rules on the books remain relevant unless courts or Congress change them.

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Existing federal rules already cover AI

Deceptive claims (FTC): in its 2024 Operation AI Comply, the Federal Trade Commission brought cases against companies making false AI claims or using AI to deceive, stating there is no AI exemption from the laws on the books. Claims about what your AI can do must be true and backed up.
Lending: under Regulation B, creditors must give specific reasons when they refuse credit, or tell applicants they can ask for them. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has said a complex algorithm does not excuse this.
Other sectors: health, insurance, employment and financial regulators apply their existing rules to AI used in their areas.

State and city laws to know

New York City, Local Law 144 (in force; enforced since 5 July 2023): an employer or agency may use an automated employment decision tool only if it has had a bias audit within the past year, must publish a summary of the results, and must notify candidates and employees.
Illinois, Public Act 103-0804 (in effect from 1 January 2026): amends the Illinois Human Rights Act so that it is a civil rights violation for an employer to use AI that has the effect of discriminating against protected classes, to use zip codes as a proxy for them, or to fail to tell employees it is using AI for these decisions. The state Department of Human Rights is to set the notice rules.
Texas, HB 149 (in effect from 1 January 2026): bans developing or deploying AI intended to unlawfully discriminate or to encourage self-harm, harm to others or crime; requires government agencies to tell people when they interact with AI, and health care providers to disclose AI use in care. The Attorney General enforces it, with 60 days to cure a violation first.
Colorado, SB26-189 (signed 14 May 2026; requirements from 1 January 2027): repeals and re-enacts the 2024 Colorado AI Act, which therefore did not take effect in its original form. The new law covers automated decision-making technology used in consequential decisions such as employment, housing, lending, insurance and health care, with disclosure duties after adverse outcomes and Attorney General enforcement.
California (several rules in effect): Civil Rights Council regulations on automated-decision systems in employment took effect on 1 October 2025, including keeping related records for four years; regulations under the California Consumer Privacy Act on automated decision-making technology took effect on 1 January 2026, and businesses using it for significant decisions must comply by 1 January 2027; and SB 53, signed on 29 September 2025, sets transparency and incident-reporting duties for large developers of frontier AI models.

What this means in practice

If you only use AI to draft, summarise and search, US rules mainly ask you not to mislead anyone about it. If AI plays a part in hiring, promotion, lending, insurance, housing or health decisions, check the rules in each state and city where your candidates or customers are, keep a person in charge of the decision, and keep records. Ask vendors of HR and decision tools what audits and documentation they provide.

This is general information, not legal advice.

What to do next

List any AI or automated tools used in decisions about people, and the states and cities those people are in.
Ask each vendor of hiring or decision tools for bias audit results and documentation, and check notice duties with your counsel.
Review your marketing and sales materials so that every claim about AI is accurate and can be backed up.

Goes deeper in our free AI Field Guide: 9. Checking AI output before you use it, 26. Guardrails and permissions: what AI may and may not do, 32. Leading AI adoption: what leaders do differently. Ask for these guides.

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Jacques Mouton, founder of Synapse Fusion. Leads AI adoption programmes that turn AI spend into hours back. About Jacques.
How this page was made: researched and drafted with AI assistance from the sources below, each opened and checked on the date shown, and reviewed against our editorial rules.