Implementation, not regulation, of ‘transformational’ AI on Healey’s radar

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey NANCY LANE/BOSTON HERALD/TNS

By SAM DRYSALE

State House News Service

Published: 06-27-2025 12:01 PM

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is “less focused on regulation and more focused on implementation” of artificial intelligence, and says she hasn’t “focused too much” on a piece of the budget bill moving through Congress that would prevent states from regulating AI.

A provision in President Donald Trump’s “One, Big Beautiful Bill” being debated in Congress would block states from regulating AI for the next 10 years.

Supporters say it would give the tech industry more room to grow and prevent a patchwork of different state laws, especially as U.S. companies compete with China in a race to get ahead in the technology that is now impacting global economies. Opponents say it’s a violation of states’ rights, a giveaway to big tech, and could be dangerous in a field that’s evolving quickly with unresolved ethical questions and causing job displacement.

Asked whether the federal government should be able to stop states from regulating AI, Healey replied that it hasn’t been her main concern.

“States need to have their role, and the federal government has its role. I haven’t focused too much on that,” she told reporters Wednesday morning after an event at which she spoke to business leaders in Boston.

She continued, “What I’m focused on is leaning into the investments that we’re making here on AI. I’ve said that I want Massachusetts to be a global hub for applied AI, using AI to help us more quickly solve problems, whether it’s curing diseases and developing treatments, or figuring out the energy strategy and how to build greater resilience. I’ve also used AI in government. We’re going to continue to do just that.”

At a Boston Globe summit earlier this month, Healey said she had used a generative AI chatbot like ChatGPT to write a speech in her style, and to help her stepson with an assignment.

“I used it the other day when I was actually helping my stepson with a work assignment,” she said. “I was wondering how I would phrase — how it would phrase something, how it would talk about it in the form of a speech. It was actually quite fascinating, what it generated, in terms of what I might say for a speech.”

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Healey added, “I embrace AI, I think it’s amazing. I think it’s transformational.”

Giving an example of how the technology can be applied to government, Healey said instead of having her Department of Transportation staff wade through hundreds of pages of regulations while working on infrastructure projects, they could use AI to answer specific queries about the regulations.

“That means better, faster service. You still need the human being very much, but it just cuts down on the time it takes that human being on our team to do that work,” she said at the Globe event on June 10. “I’m all about embracing AI in government.”

After saying Wednesday morning that she wasn’t too focused on the portion of the Congressional budget bill dealing with AI regulation, the News Service asked Healey if she thought there was any need to regulate the industry.

“I think there’s a general acknowledgment we’ve got to have some regulation in the space, some guardrails around the space, and that’s something that I’m glad Congress would look at. I think that’s important,” she said.

Reporters pressed again on whether that responsibility falls to states or the federal government.

“It doesn’t preclude the state from doing it. But, you know, right now, look, I’m less focused on regulation and more focused on implementation,” Healey responded. “And how do we make the investments, including the $100 million AI hub that I’ve delivered here to Massachusetts, how do we partner with our research institutions, colleges and universities, the private sector, so that we are generating all that we can in terms of our utility out of AI. That’s what I want us to be doing.”

Healey and lawmakers last year included $100 million in an economic development bond law to create a Massachusetts AI Hub, which Healey’s office said would “facilitate the application of artificial intelligence across the state’s ecosystem.”