The defeat early Tuesday of a ban on state laws for artificial intelligence dealt a major blow to the tech industry on the verge of a policy victory.
In a 99-1 vote, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to strike an amendment to the Republican economic policy package that would have imposed a decadelong moratorium on attempts to regulate AI by the states.
The before-sunrise vote was a win for consumer groups and Democrats, who had argued for weeks against the provision that they feared would remove any threat of oversight for the powerful AI industry.
“The…
