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AI Policy & Regulation Tracker

Every AI policy we track in one place: frontier-AI safety rules, data-center 'who pays' policy, AI-and-copyright law, and national AI strategies. One row per policy — jurisdiction, what it does, the key threshold or number, its stage, and the source. Updated as new laws land.

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Vintage: 2026-09. Launched September 25, 2026 with 16 policies: EU GPAI enforcement going live (Aug 2026), the US federal preemption fight (EO 14365), five live US state AI laws, four data-center 'who pays' state templates, China's first AI-agent rules, the $1.5B Anthropic copyright settlement, and Australia's 2027 AI-law push. Several flagship items take effect January 1, 2027 — this tracker will matter most in Q4 2026.

16 of 16 rows

EntityMetricValuePeriodConfidenceSource
European Union
Frontier AI safety
EU AI Act — GPAI enforcement powers liveNew
European AI Office can demand technical files, run its own model evaluations, order corrective measures, and restrict/withdraw models. Fines up to 3% of worldwide turnover or €15M. Systemic-risk tier: models trained above 10^25 FLOP. No GPAI fine observed yet.
In force since Aug 2, 2026Aug 2026Press-reported[1]
California
Frontier AI safety
SB 53 — Transparency in Frontier AI ActNew
Covers developers with >$500M revenue training models at ≥10^26 FLOP: publish safety frameworks, report critical incidents within 15 days (24 hours if imminent harm), whistleblower protections. Penalties up to $1M per violation.
In force since Jan 1, 2026Jan 2026Press-reported[2]
New York
Frontier AI safety
RAISE Act — Responsible AI Safety and EducationNew
Same 10^26 FLOP frontier threshold as California's SB 53 — a de facto bi-state standard. Tighter incident reporting (72 hours) and penalties ($1M first / $3M subsequent violation), plus mandatory ownership-disclosure filing.
Signed Mar 27, 2026; effective Jan 1, 2027Mar 2026Press-reported[3]
China
Frontier AI safety
AI agent regulations (world's first)New
First dedicated national regulatory category for AI agents, separate from generative-AI rules: three decision-authorization tiers; mandatory filing, testing, and human-override for agents in healthcare, transport, media, public safety. Effectively extraterritorial.
In force since Jul 15, 2026Jul 2026Press-reported[4]
California
Data-center & energy policy
7-bill data-center packageNew
AB 1577 requires data centers with ≥500 kW IT capacity to send monthly operating data to the CEC: total energy, PUE, water in gallons, WUE, onsite generation, generator fuel, renewable share, waste-heat reuse, refrigerants, sound levels. Three laws shift electric-infrastructure costs from residential customers to operators. Disclosure plus cost-shifting — no caps.
Signed Sep 2026Sep 2026Press-reported[5]
New York
Data-center & energy policy
Data-center moratorium (EO 62)New
Moratorium on data centers ≥50 MW until the Department of Public Service completes environmental review (~1 year). Context: ~12 GW of proposed data-center projects sit in NY's interconnection queue — about 38% of the state's 31,578 MW summer peak. Companion bill S10642 would set a fixed 1-year moratorium at 20 MW+ with 90% renewable electricity by 2040.
In force; ≥50 MW paused2026Press-reported[6]
Pennsylvania
Data-center & energy policy
EO 2026-05 — data-center consumer protectionsNew
For data centers with peak demand >25 MW: developers pay 100% of capital costs for generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades (zero ratepayer cost-shifting); bans NDAs with state agencies; requires community benefit agreements; 10% clean dispatchable power by 2027, rising to 32% by 2035.
Signed Aug 18, 2026Aug 2026Press-reported[7]
New Jersey
Data-center & energy policy
Data-center ratepayer protection lawNew
BPU must create a separate rate structure for large data centers; grid-upgrade costs built mainly for data centers cannot be added to other customers' bills; operators must commit to paying for at least 85% of requested capacity for 10 years; twice-yearly energy and water reporting.
Signed Jul 2026Jul 2026Press-reported[8]
United States (federal court)
AI & copyright
Bartz v. Anthropic — $1.5B settlementNew
Largest copyright recovery in judicial history. Court drew the sector's key line: training on legally acquired books = transformative fair use; downloading millions of pirated books (shadow libraries) = actionable liability. Sets the acquisition-vs-ingestion distinction for the whole industry.
~$3,000 per work × 482,460 worksJul 2026 (final approval)Press-reported[9]
United States (federal)
AI & copyright
DOJ backs fair use for AI trainingNew
The federal government's first direct intervention in AI-training copyright cases: urges the court to find LLM training on copyrighted works 'highly transformative' fair use, on national-security/competitiveness grounds. The bellwether NYT et al. v. OpenAI/Microsoft case is still pending.
Statement of interest filed Sep 1, 2026Sep 2026Press-reported[10]
California
AI & copyright
AB 2013 — Generative AI Training Data Transparency ActNew
Developers of generative AI systems available to Californians must publish a high-level summary of each training dataset: sources, copyrighted/licensed material, personal information, data-point counts, collection periods, synthetic-data use. A legal challenge failed at the preliminary-injunction stage (X.AI v. Bonta, Mar 4, 2026); no enforcement action yet.
In force since Jan 1, 2026Jan 2026Press-reported[11]
United States (federal)
National AI strategy & governance
EO 14365 — national AI policy frameworkNew
'Minimally burdensome national policy framework': DOJ AI Litigation Task Force to challenge state AI laws; Commerce review of 'onerous' state laws; federal funding can hinge on state AI-law posture. Congress twice refused to codify preemption — Senate stripped a 10-year moratorium 99–1. First test: xAI sued Colorado over its AI Act (Apr 2026); federal court stayed enforcement.
Signed Dec 11, 2025Dec 2025Press-reported[12]
Colorado
National AI strategy & governance
AI Act reenacted as SB 26-189New
Algorithmic-discrimination rules for consequential decisions were stayed by a federal court (Apr 27, 2026) after the xAI/DOJ challenge; the reenacted version scales back scope, adds a 60-day AG cure period, and a new consequential-decision test for clinical AI.
Signed May 14, 2026; effective Jan 1, 2027May 2026Press-reported[13]
Texas
National AI strategy & governance
TRAIGA — Texas Responsible AI Governance Act (HB 149)New
Intent-based bans on specific AI uses rather than scale thresholds; documentation, transparency, and red-teaming requirements tied to NIST's AI Risk Management Framework; Attorney General enforcement.
In force since Jan 1, 2026Jan 2026Press-reported[14]
China
National AI strategy & governance
Companion-AI restrictions + labeling enforcementNew
Companion/role-play AI faces anti-addiction systems and minor identity checks — ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent pulled humanlike features. On Feb 12, 2026 the CAC penalized 13,421 accounts and removed 543,000 pieces of unlabeled AI-generated content. 796 generative-AI services filed with CAC as of Feb 2026.
In force since Jul 15, 2026Jul 2026Press-reported[15]
Australia
National AI strategy & governance
AI-specific laws from 2027New
After a rogue OpenAI bot breached the Medicare health database (June breach, revealed September), PM Albanese voiced 'extreme concern' to Sam Altman. Australia is preparing AI-specific laws starting 2027 — possibly including mandatory breach reporting (mirroring the 72-hour intrusion-disclosure rule) — and 'social licence' may factor into data-centre planning approvals.
In preparationSep 2026Press-reported[16]

Sources

  1. EU AI Act enforcement phase begins (GPAI powers, Aug 2 2026) (Wilson Sonsini (JDSupra))
  2. Gov. Newsom signs SB 53, establishing AI safety reporting requirements (Maginative)
  3. New York's frontier AI law gets a California makeover (Pulse)
  4. CSA research note: China AI agent regulation enforcement 2026 (Cloud Security Alliance)
  5. California forces AI data centers to disclose their water and power use (Startup Fortune)
  6. New York data center moratorium (Trendy Tech Tribe)
  7. Data center legislation white paper (PA EO 2026-05) (McGuireWoods)
  8. Who pays for US power boom: blue, red states offer different ways to lower utility bills (The New York Ledger)
  9. Why unlicensed data feeds are a legal risk for AI (Bartz v. Anthropic $1.5B) (Newstex)
  10. US Department of Justice backs fair use for AI training (The Decoder)
  11. Is your 2026 AI strategy founded on the three pillars of due diligence? (AB 2013) (Gamma Law)
  12. Trump's AI executive order: state AI laws under attack (Weintraub Tobin)
  13. AI governance regulations (Colorado SB 26-189) (DeepInspect)
  14. AI regulations around the world (Texas TRAIGA) (CASRAI)
  15. AI regulation news: EU act, China policy, security risks (Questa AI)
  16. Australia steps up response to AI after OpenAI bot breaches health system database (Reuters (via SRN News))

How to cite this page

SundayPyjamas Impact Foundation. "AI Policy & Regulation Tracker." Impact Suite. Accessed September 25, 2026. https://sundaypyjamas.org/tracker/ai-policy.