US AI governance is headed for default soft law

Significance This debate ranges from privacy and data protection questions to the potential for wide-scale job destruction and whether AIs pose an existential risk to humanity. A matrix of regulation is emerging at an uneven pace. Impacts Insurance requirements and government procurement contract provisions will help shape commercial AI standards. The lack of AI expertise within Congress, and of digital technology in general, will be a soft barrier to good lawmaking. 'Soft law' would require iterative and agile legislation, more akin to software development than traditional congressional lawmaking. Keeping the United States competitive with China in AI will become political code for advancing light-touch domestic governance.