The rules for how nonprofits can use AI are being written right now, and there's a real issue over who gets to write them. In this midweek check-in, Carolyn Woodard walks through the federal-versus-state fight over AI regulation, why none of this requires you to be a lawyer to follow along, and how to stay informed about state AI rules-making where nonprofits should be at the table.

She also notes new environmental research showing the water use per prompt really depends on where the data center is sited and the state of the grid in that location - another reason that local advocacy is a real way to have agency in this moment. She closes by advocating for a values-grounded AI policy that is still your best foundation no matter which way the rules shift.

This episode covers:

• In December 2025 an executive order "Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence" set out to replace a 50-state "patchwork" with one federal approach. 
• The nuance that matters for your compliance: an executive order doesn't automatically erase existing state laws, and the March 2026 framework urging Congress to act is non-binding — so the rules already on the books in your state still apply for now.
• How Colorado and California are splitting: Colorado scaled back its comprehensive AI law (hiring, housing, lending, healthcare) and pushed the effective date to January 1, 2027, while California's frontier-safety law applies only to large developers — and Governor Newsom vetoed the worker-focused "No Robo Bosses Act" after industry pushback.
• New UC Riverside research (Prof. Shaolei Ren) showing the water cost of an identical AI query depends enormously on where the data center sits — a more than 20x swing — reframing the "is my individual prompt harmful?" question toward the bigger siting-and-grid picture as Fortune 500 companies integrate AI into everything they do.
• Who actually shaped these laws: well-resourced industry groups on one side and consumer-advocacy and civil-rights nonprofits on the other. There is a clear role for nonprofit leadership in the AI regulation debate.

Resources Mentioned:

• Artificial Intelligence Legislation Database — National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
• U.S. State AI Governance Legislation Tracker — IAPP (nonprofit)
• Find & Contact Elected Officials — USA.gov
• Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence (Executive Order, Dec. 11, 2025) — The White House
• Colorado Governor Signs SB 189, Significantly Amending the State's AI Law — Holland & Knight
• California's SB 53: The First Frontier AI Law, Explained — Future of Privacy Forum
• AI Programs Consume Large Volumes of Scarce Water — UC Riverside News (Prof. Shaolei Ren)
• Making AI Less "Thirsty" (peer-reviewed) — Communications of the ACM
• AI's Energy Footprint Investigation — MIT Technology Review
• Template: Acceptable Use of AI Tools in the Nonprofit Workplace — Community IT Innovators
• Not mentioned in the podcast but apropos. The Fight Over AI is Really a Fight Over Who Governs - op ed from McGovern Foundation in Time 

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Start a conversation :)

• Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/
• email Carolyn at [email protected]
• on LinkedIn 
• on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagement
• on the Community IT website

Thanks for listening.