Artificial intelligence is an emerging technology that incompetent politicians are too inept to navigate. The mass use of AI in the form of photos, videos, and audio has transformed the technological era we live in and the government is desperate to keep up with regulations. Unfortunately, those regulations may end up limiting the free speech of Minnesotans rather than having massive tech companies be held accountable for their products.

GOP Senator Eric Lucero (SD30) announced that he is teaming up with far-left Democrat Erin Maye Quade (SD56) on a series of AI regulation bills. Of course, it is perfectly reasonable to partner with a Democrat on issues like civil liberties if there is political overlap but it appears Lucero has gone beyond that point with several AI regulatory bills.

Lucero’s rhetoric in his partnership with radical Socialist Erin Maye Quade has been concerning to conservatives. In the Senate Judiciary Committee, he argued that they both absolutely support law enforcement, they’re both pro-business, and they both want to “improve quality of life across the board”. By making personal praises of Maye Quade as opposed to confining his praise to only the legislation, Lucero shows MN voters that he is not a very genuine actor in the legislature. The full committee meeting can be seen here.

One of the bills Lucero and Maye Quade are partnering on is a good, pro-4th Amendment (Right to no unreasonable searches and seizures) bill. This bill, SF1120, prohibits the government from using AI for reverse-location info. In essence, police agencies want to have the authority to capture data from all cellphones within a certain geolocation, likely near a crime scene. Of course, the criminal actions of others should not lead to the trampling of your rights. While SF1120 is a useful bill to protect our civil liberties, the bills go downhill from there.

Maye Quade and Lucero are proposing an Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution (SF4114) to declare that AI is not entitled to free speech. Since this provision would be enforced by radical leftist Attorney General Keith Ellison, it could easily be twisted to threaten the free speech of Minnesota citizens. The use of AI can be an expression of free speech and the bill is utterly ridiculous since it is unenforceable. AI does not care or stop just because some politicians added some words to the state Constitution! See bill below:

Lucero is known to be supporting two more AI bills with far left Erin Maye Quade including one to ban businesses from using chat bots posing as humans (SF1886) and another to ban minors from using chat bots (SF1857). While there likely are some examples of deceptive business practices taking place with AI chat bots, a one-size-fits-all regulation on all businesses is not the solution. If an AI chat bot effectively services a customer, why would it matter if the customer thought they were talking to a person?

In regards to the bill banning minors from using chat bots, this is an unenforceable regulation as there is no way for the state to prevent everyone under the age of 18 from using an AI chat bot. It additionally places regulatory burden across the board instead of singling out bad actors in the AI space. Both of these laws can be selectively enforced by Keith Ellison and are a threat to liberty. Interestingly, convicted burglar Nicole Mitchell was removed as a co-author from this bill (and several other AI bills) just one week ago (3/4/26) despite Mitchell having resigned from office in July of last year. See underlined section below:

There are two AI bills that Maye Quade is proposing where it is unclear if Lucero supports them or not. One bill bans health carriers from using AI to decide prior authorization requests (SF3984) and the other is a taxpayer-funded environmental impact study on the effects of AI for an undisclosed amount of money (SF1117). Lucero only singled out two of Maye Quade's AI bills that he does not support as seen in their joint press conference. One of the bills bans businesses from setting prices using AI (SF3098) and the other bans AI in utilization review (SF1856). Lucero is right to steer clear of these regulatory bills but he should have the same skepticism of many of the other previously mentioned bills.

Lucero partnering with Democrats to impose AI laws appears to be following in the footsteps of turncoat state Rep. Walter Hudson (30A). As seen in previous A4L reporting, Hudson partnered with Democrats to pass a bill that criminalizes AI memes of politicians and allows Keith Ellison to send Minnesotans to prison for five years for violating the law. 

Action 4 Liberty will continue to protect our Constitutional Rights. The government will take any opportunity they can to deteriorate our right to free speech and many of the bills being pushed by Maye Quade and Lucero are a threat to that liberty. A4L remains principled and unwavering in our mission to protect liberty for the next generation.