Pennsylvania is building out the infrastructure needed to meet artificial intelligence demands; but state lawmakers are also focused on regulating how the technology is used.  

This week, the Pennsylvania Senate voted to classify artificial intelligence “deepfakes” as digital forgery—with a criminal charge as the penalty.

“What you say in your image and what you're doing in a video, is your own. And that cannot be manipulated or changed to someone's bad actor intentions," said Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, a Republican from Berks and Montgomery counties. She sponsored SB 649, which passed on Tuesday with a 50-0 vote. It now heads to the House for further consideration.

It’s just one example of how Pennsylvania lawmakers are tackling artificial intelligence’s impact on society and culture.

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are pushing for a deepfake law specific to political campaigns. Last session, the Pennsylvania House commissioned an artificial intelligence advisory committee to identify good artificial intelligence regulations.

Pennycuick also sponsored a bill, signed into law in November, that criminalized child pornography made with artificial intelligence. She says progress must protect individuals.

“If you're an industry, we want you to use AI to solve problems in your processes or your manufacturing,” Pennycuick said. "But we want to keep bad actors out.”

Some lawmakers are skeptical of how artificial intelligence is changing industries.

“We like regulating human behavior way more than we like regulating corporate behavior,” said Rep. Rick Krajewski, a Philadelphia Democrat.

Recently, Krajewski introduced HB140 that bans artificial intelligence programs that utilize rent setting algorithms.

There are several companies in the United States that use artificial intelligence to evaluate the price history, renter turnovers, and other data in an area to calculate what rent a landlord can charge.

“It’s really algorithmic data, combined with group participation—  resulting in collusion,” Krajewski said.

When multiple landlords in an area are using the same program, the algorithm can end up controlling rent trends.

The company RealPage was sued by the United States Justice Department in 2024, because the company controlled around 80% of this emerging market. The lawsuit alleges that participating landlords share non public, competitively sensitive data to train the algorithm, which in turn erodes competition in the local markets.

“You have to balance advancement, with the potential applications of innovation, the impacts on society,” said Krajewski, talking about when artificial intelligence regulations should be considered as an option. 

As Pennsylvania lawmakers continue policy discussions over AI, there is a provision in the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that halts progress. On page 278 of the bill, which is currently in the U.S. Senate, there is a moratorium that bans any state from creating or enforcing artificial intelligence laws… with limited exceptions.

This provision has been criticized by both Democratic and Republican Pennsylvania lawmakers.