Maryland Governor Wes Moore has outlined a statewide framework for governing artificial intelligence, a plan centered on protections for workers, children, and consumers as the technology spreads through workplaces, schools, and public services across the state.
The framework, announced on Monday, was reported by a broad slate of outlets including the Baltimore Sun, CBS News, WBAL-TV, and WTOP. It arrives as states rather than Congress have become the primary arena for American AI rulemaking — a pattern that has accelerated through 2026 and shows no sign of slowing. Keep up with every development in AI policy and regulation as it happens.
What the Framework Covers
According to WBAL-TV, the plan moves Maryland forward with an AI regulation approach focused on worker and child protections, alongside safeguards for consumers interacting with automated systems. Governor Moore's office framed the initiative as both a safety measure and an economic one: the state wants to capture the productivity benefits of AI while limiting the harms that come with unchecked deployment in hiring, education, and public-facing services.
A central plank, according to HR Dive, is workforce preparation. The framework pairs its regulatory elements with reskilling commitments — state-backed programs intended to help Maryland workers adapt as AI reshapes job tasks in offices, warehouses, and the public sector. That dual structure of rules plus retraining mirrors the approach other governors have taken, and reflects a growing consensus among state leaders that banning the technology is neither feasible nor desirable.
A Right-of-Publicity Law for the AI Era
One of the more consequential pieces of the plan, reported by the Maryland Daily Record, is Moore's intention to pursue a right-of-publicity statute as part of the framework. Such a law would give Marylanders a legal claim over the commercial use of their name, image, and likeness — a protection that has taken on new urgency as generative AI tools make it trivially easy to fabricate convincing photos, videos, and voice clones of real people.
Right-of-publicity legislation has become one of the most active fronts in state AI policy, driven largely by deepfake incidents involving celebrities, private citizens, and, in a number of states, high-profile cases involving students. A Maryland statute would join a growing body of state law aimed squarely at AI-generated impersonation.
Children in the Crosshairs of Policy
The framework's child-protection focus tracks with where state legislatures have been moving all year. Schools have emerged as a frontline for AI policy debates, from cheating and homework integrity questions to the marketing of AI tutoring products directly to minors. Maryland's plan, as described by outlets covering the announcement, treats AI's impact on children as a first-order policy concern rather than an afterthought — consistent with warnings from the United Nations' human rights chief that children's rights apply fully in digital and AI contexts.
States Filling a Federal Vacuum
Maryland's move lands in the same week as other significant state action. In Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker signed an executive order establishing a statewide AI Cabinet charged with assessing risks and drafting policy proposals through 2027. Congressional Democrats, including Senator Bernie Sanders, have pushed federal legislation to restrict the most advanced AI systems, but with Congress stalled, governors have effectively become the country's AI regulators.
That state-by-state patchwork has drawn criticism from both directions: industry groups warn that fifty different regulatory regimes will burden companies operating nationally, while consumer advocates argue that only comprehensive federal law can keep pace with technologies that cross state lines instantly. The European Union's AI Act, the world's first comprehensive AI law, continues to serve as a reference point that American state lawmakers cite — and occasionally copy — when drafting their own frameworks.
For Maryland, the immediate next step is turning the framework into legislation. Governor Moore's office has signaled it will work with the General Assembly on implementing bills, meaning the specifics — enforcement mechanisms, penalties, agency responsibilities — will be hashed out in Annapolis in the months ahead.
What It Means for Residents and Businesses
For Maryland workers, the framework promises both guardrails and government-supported retraining, though the effectiveness of reskilling programs in offsetting AI-driven displacement remains a live debate among labor economists.
For businesses operating in the state, the message is that AI governance is coming through state capitols whether or not Washington acts. Companies deploying AI in hiring, education, customer service, or marketing — particularly anything involving synthetic media of real people — should expect Maryland's final legislation to impose disclosure and consent requirements, in line with the direction of other state laws.
The framework positions Maryland among a growing cohort of states that have moved from studying AI to actively regulating it, and it sets up Annapolis as another battleground where the practical rules of American AI deployment will be written.
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