Virginia Unleashes AI to Eliminate Unnecessary Government Regulations
By Paul Steidler: Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is using AI to go after and eliminate unnecessary state government regulations, doing so in a big and bold way. This first-in-the-nation program is rooted in common sense and established, powerful technology. Other states and the federal government should look to Virginia, learn from it, and adopt similar programs.
On July 11, Governor Youngkin signed Executive Order 51, launching the nation’s first state-level “agentic” artificial intelligence program to review regulations and cut red tape. Agentic AI is a step up from ChatGPT and similar generative AI programs with which many are familiar. It can complete complex tasks, with minimal human supervision, such as identifying overlapping, unnecessary, and illegal regulations scattered throughout tens of thousands of pages.
Governor Youngkin already has street cred in cutting regulations. In 2022, he signed executive orders that have already cut regulations by 26.8 percent at Virginia agencies, while also shortening guidance documents by 47.9 percent. This tedious process, though, involved going through the regulations line by line.
Executive Order 51 notes that in Virginia, by law already, agencies must “conduct a periodic review of each of their regulations every four years to determine the continued need for each regulation and whether it can be modified or eliminated.” State agencies are now required to use AI to determine if regulations are legal, redundant, or of undue length, and the extent to which neighboring states impose similar regulations.
Indeed, Virginia has positioned itself as the testing ground for what could become standard practice across government. Other states and the federal government should consider this AI-powered regulatory review model.
Unnecessary regulations result in abundantly wasted time as well as high and wasteful costs to people and businesses. No one, except perhaps a few lawyers, benefits from this needless complexity and confusion. Using AI to turbocharge a reduction in state and federal regulations is an exciting, important, and urgent development.