The Privacy Advisor · Jedidiah Bracy, IAPP Editorial Director

US state AI legislation in 2025: A discussion with Connecticut State Sen. James Maroney

January 31, 2025·39 min·3 clips

Connecticut Senator James Maroney explains why state AI bills will proliferate in 2025 amid federal gridlock.

The federal lane looks narrow. With national politics divided and the executive branch in a deregulatory mood, the host turns to state privacy and AI legislation as the place where the work is still happening in 2025 and beyond. Connecticut gives the conversation a spine. Maroney comes in through Connecticut's comprehensive privacy law and his role in the Future of Privacy Forum's multi-state AI policymaker working group. The episode stays close to process. AI is not treated as a magic word. The focus is automated decision making systems that are already slipping into decisions that matter. Maroney wants mitigation first. States, in his view, can lead in different areas without shutting down useful tools because the frame is too blunt. Public money is part of that. He points to Connecticut budget money and work with Yale on a competition for algorithms meant to reduce health inequities. Then the examples widen. He mentions AI in India being used to assess tomato seeds under rising temperatures, and a Milford NOAA lab studying oyster selection for warming waters. The caution does not disappear. Useful applications do not cancel out harms when automated recommendations shape jobs, housing, and daily life. Hiring gets attention. Maroney cites an ArtSmart AI survey result that 88% of companies in that survey use AI to screen resumes. Tenant screening is next, with survey ranges suggesting 50 to 70% of large landlords plan to use AI for future tenants. Enforcement is handled plainly. Maroney compares it to speed laws: the state cannot catch every violation, but it can push behavior toward safer norms. The ending stays practical. The hard question is how to reward better system building when the technology is everywhere, the uses vary, and enforcement will never catch it all.

As heard by us

A grounded look at how Connecticut is thinking through AI rules while Washington stays mostly on the sidelines.

State AI law is the center of gravity in this conversation, with Connecticut State Senator James Maroney arguing that federal privacy and AI legislation looks unlikely while states keep moving.

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See how state AI bills are likely to proliferate in 2025 and shape hiring, tenant screening, and enforcement.

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